Review: Legends & Lattes

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a bit of a variation on the "Family Favorites" theme, in that this is not an OLD family favorite. I read this book in 2023. It's a Hugo winner, and TTRPG players should love it.

When you play a character in D&D, do you ever give a thought to when, or why, that character might want to retire? How long can you swing a sword for a living? Today, career athletes' bodies start to break down in their 30s.

Viv, an orc mercenary, adventurer, and treasure-hunter, has been saving up for a while She just never knew what she wanted to do for retirement -- until she tastes coffee for the first time. But she's cautious - she has to be sure of success. Viv locates a legendary good-luck charm, and then the story truly begins.

I read this for my Bedtime Reading stream. I haven't had a book choke me up like that since The Princess Bride.

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Review: Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was Robin's favorite book in 2018. It was the last favorite book that she chose. Early in 2019, My son Arthur and I took turns reading Novik's Temeraire series to her while she convalesced.

This book was chosen as the Fantasy read for January 2024, by Midtown Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club.

I truly appreciated the way that Novik weaved the disparate stories and goals of her leading ladies. She gave the impression, right up to the end, that there was no way that all of them will win - that success for one party will mean that abject failure for the other.

Several members of the book club had trouble with keeping track of who was narrating each chapter. I did not have that problem - the audiobook reader Lisa Flanagan gave each a distinctive voice and personality.

I plan on adding this to my Bedtime Reading stream

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Review: What Do You Do with a Kangaroo?

What Do You Do with a Kangaroo? by Mercer Mayer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When my daughter was a toddler, this was one of her favorite books, and I read it to her so much that I memorized it.

The little girl is placed in an increasingly improbably set of circumstances, in which talking animals repeatedly cross boundaries. The story teaches children, in no uncertain terms, that they don't have to put up with that sort of nonsense.

This book is planned for my Bedtime Reading stream.

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Review: The Shepherd's Crown

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is, as far as I know, the only Discworld book that Robin (my late wife) never read. We had it as soon as it was published, but Internet spoilers had revealed one plot point that she could never bring herself to experience.

Although the book was wrapped up in a hurry (Pratchett was fighting Alzheimer's), I still feel that it was an apt finale to Tiffany Aching's story. She learns, in a hurry, that being the leader (well, sort of - witches don't have leaders) doesn't mean that you stop being yourself. It's a lesson that I wish many managers would learn.

I read this for my Bedtime Reading stream in March of 2024.

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Review: The Housemaid

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars  (for the book club, 7 of 10)

This was chosen by the Benson Library's mystery book club.

My overall impression is that the first part of the book feels like a Hallmark movie, and the second feels like Lifetime. Or, if you prefer, a plotline from a Harlequin romance is expanded to include a sudden dark twist.

But the darkest twist of all is saved for the end. I put this down and said, "Daaaaamn."

I used the audiobook format, and have to say that the narrator (Lauryn Allman) did the story justice. She handled the characters very well, even when the narrative voice changed, and kept me engaged in the story.

TW: There is some serious gaslighting and torture in this story.

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Hammers don't drive nails...

...but have you ever tried to pound a nail in without a hammer? 

And screwdrivers don't turn screws.  People turn screws.  With screwdrivers.

Yes, you can pound a nail and turn a screw without those tools.  But they are designed specifically for those tasks.  It's what they are for. A hammer is the most efficient way to drive a nail.  A screwdriver is the most efficient way to turn screws.

So I can't imagine any stupider argument against gun control than, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."

Review: A Book About Myself

A Book About Myself by Theodore Dreiser
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A rather self-indulgent autobiography. I read a couple of chapters for Librivox. I'm currently listening to the whole thing, and without rancor, I find some of the readers difficult to listen to.

Dreiser apparently spent his youth feeling really bad about the plight of blue-collar workers, but avoiding their company all the same. He wanted very badly to make it big in the newspaper business, and was not above lying to get jobs. He despised the state of politics, believing that the country was turning into an oligarchy (spoiler, it did), but he constantly sucks up to the rich. Oh, and let's not forget his never-ending quest to get laid. 

I do give Dreiser credit for predicting the replacement of Democracy for a plutocracy. 

Librivox:
https://librivox.org/a-book-about-mys...

YouTube:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILrnW...
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01GVY...
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYiZp...

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Review: Uhura's Song

Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I decided, during Covid Layoff & Lockdown, to start streaming bedtime reading for family, Uhura's Song was the first book that I chose. I have not read all of the Star Trek novels (there are many other Trekkies out there more devoted than I), but this one is a must-read.

Janet Kagan did not have a long career - she died much too young - but her widower kindly gave me permission to stream this. I purchased a bunch of books from his storage unit, and encouraged everyone else to do so as well.

This particular story centers around the rapid spread of a hitherto-unknown disease, which made it painfully appropriate for Covid reading. The plague quickly threatens an entire species, which is bad enough, but then we learn that it can also be contracted by humans. The first person to catch it is Nurse Chapel, taking her (and Dr. McCoy) out of the picture.

Enter Dr. Evan Wilson, a character closely based upon Kagan's mother. She's petite, sassy, and much more than she seems. The Enterprise's mission is the locate the mysterious first home planet of the Eeiaouans, and the only clue they have is an obscure song that Uhura remembers a friend of hers sharing one evening, as if it were a scandalous secret.

I can't praise this book enough. Kagan's other novels are equally excellent.

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Review: Wintersmith

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Third book in the Tiffany Aching series of Discworld books (by Terry Pratchett). You may consider all Discworld books to be family favorites.

Of course everyone in the Ramtops (or in Great Britain) knows about the Morris dance, in which dignified old men put on white jester clothes and bells, and dance in the spring.

But Tiffany Aching gets a chance to witness the Dark Morris, in which the dancers wear black, the bells are silent, and they dance in the Winter. She notices a "blank spot" in the dance, where obviously all the dancers are leaving a space for an absent dancer, and decides to fill the gap.

Only afterward does she discover that spot was reserved for the Goddess of Spring.

I find this entire arc to be the best of Discworld.

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