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lantairvleaI made it through quite a few books in the last year. A lot of them were recommended by Morgan, which I have really appreciated and almost all of them have been absolutely fabulous.
I did finally finish "The Omnivours Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. It was very interesting learning about the many ways food gets from from where it is grown or raised to the table. The American food system is so weird and broken. I don't get how it can be cheaper to send food overseas to be processed and then send it back here for consumption. Also, corn. All the corn. Between corn and the preponderance of pesticides in processed foods, no wonder gut issues are high.
It was an interesting and enlightening read. Each section was focused around a meal that was a product of a specific food chain. From a fast-food meal, to your standard grocery store fare, a meal made from all locally sourced and organic ingredients, and the last one was foraged/hunted. I may not have all of them right, because it's been a couple months.
Morgan's first recommendation was "To Shape a Dragon's Breath" by Moniquill Blackgoose. It's about colonization and a fantasy world where there are dragons bonded with people. The colonizers have a lot of German and Danish flavor to them, which amused me greatly. The main character, Anequs, bonds with a native dragon, a species that had been extinct in her people's area for generations. To keep her people safe she enrolls in a dragon school run by the colonizers and has to navigate the space as a native young woman among the colonizers. I found it very engaging and enjoyable. The chapter titles told their own story. Anequs was smart, opinionated, but not infallible, but she learned from her mistakes and found her own strength.
These aren't going to be in any type of order. I allowed myself to get sucked into the free month audible subscription. This time I'm not going to get stuck paying for multiple months before I quit it, though. I also took advantage of one of their sales and a few of the free books, too, so I have a nice list I've been working through.
I got the first three books in Mary Robinette Kowal's The Glamourist Histories books. "Shades of Milk and Honey," "Glamour in Glass," and "Without a Summer" were all very enjoyable. They are mostly as advertised "Jane Austen with magic," but there's additional intrigue and other themes going on in the subsequent books. Very enjoyable, lovely worldbuilding and fantastic, complex characters. I'll eventually get through the rest of them.
I also tried the first book by Brandon Sanderson, "The Final Empire," the first of the Mistborn books. It was good. It was long and had some interesting twists and turns. I'm not interested in continuing on with more of them. Too many other compelling things to read.
"A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by T. Kingfisher was fantastic. I love Ursula Vernon's writing. I've loosely followed her career for over 20 years, since before "Digger." Anyway, her wit and sense of humor and touch of weird just hits me squarely every time. I love it. Mona was an engaging character with a fantastic voice and I love how creative and inventive she was in addressing her problems. Even if she was woefully incapable of dealing with her first problem.
"The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry" by C.M. Waggoner was recommended after T. Kingfisher's book, but I stopped during chapter two because there was more cursing than I wanted to keep listening to.
"Tess of the Road" by Rachel Hartman was a lovely wandering fantasy. Tess, the protagonist, runs away from home to avoid being shunted off to a convent by her parents. It was a lovely story about growth and change and finding your path. I have some of Hartman's other books on hold through the library.
Yes, I've discovered the digital audiobooks through my local library and couldn't be happier.
"Daughter of the Bone Forest," by Jasmine Skye was another recommendation from Morgan. It was pretty good, it ended rather abruptly and is part of a duology. The second book is out later this year. The magic was interesting and so was the world. I did roll my eyes a little at the practicality of 21 hand horses.
I listened to "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin. I had heard quite a bit about it and knew some of the spoilers, but it was still quite good. There was cursing, but not enough to put me off. One sex scene I skipped through. I'm willing to skip over one, maybe two, but more than that and I put a book down (I'd rather there be none).
The latest one I just finished was "Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones. It was absolutely charming. The main character, Sophie, was also quite charming and very likeable herself. There were little mysteries to solve and I got some of them answered, but others were surprising, but inevitable.
I did finally finish "The Omnivours Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. It was very interesting learning about the many ways food gets from from where it is grown or raised to the table. The American food system is so weird and broken. I don't get how it can be cheaper to send food overseas to be processed and then send it back here for consumption. Also, corn. All the corn. Between corn and the preponderance of pesticides in processed foods, no wonder gut issues are high.
It was an interesting and enlightening read. Each section was focused around a meal that was a product of a specific food chain. From a fast-food meal, to your standard grocery store fare, a meal made from all locally sourced and organic ingredients, and the last one was foraged/hunted. I may not have all of them right, because it's been a couple months.
Morgan's first recommendation was "To Shape a Dragon's Breath" by Moniquill Blackgoose. It's about colonization and a fantasy world where there are dragons bonded with people. The colonizers have a lot of German and Danish flavor to them, which amused me greatly. The main character, Anequs, bonds with a native dragon, a species that had been extinct in her people's area for generations. To keep her people safe she enrolls in a dragon school run by the colonizers and has to navigate the space as a native young woman among the colonizers. I found it very engaging and enjoyable. The chapter titles told their own story. Anequs was smart, opinionated, but not infallible, but she learned from her mistakes and found her own strength.
These aren't going to be in any type of order. I allowed myself to get sucked into the free month audible subscription. This time I'm not going to get stuck paying for multiple months before I quit it, though. I also took advantage of one of their sales and a few of the free books, too, so I have a nice list I've been working through.
I got the first three books in Mary Robinette Kowal's The Glamourist Histories books. "Shades of Milk and Honey," "Glamour in Glass," and "Without a Summer" were all very enjoyable. They are mostly as advertised "Jane Austen with magic," but there's additional intrigue and other themes going on in the subsequent books. Very enjoyable, lovely worldbuilding and fantastic, complex characters. I'll eventually get through the rest of them.
I also tried the first book by Brandon Sanderson, "The Final Empire," the first of the Mistborn books. It was good. It was long and had some interesting twists and turns. I'm not interested in continuing on with more of them. Too many other compelling things to read.
"A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking" by T. Kingfisher was fantastic. I love Ursula Vernon's writing. I've loosely followed her career for over 20 years, since before "Digger." Anyway, her wit and sense of humor and touch of weird just hits me squarely every time. I love it. Mona was an engaging character with a fantastic voice and I love how creative and inventive she was in addressing her problems. Even if she was woefully incapable of dealing with her first problem.
"The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry" by C.M. Waggoner was recommended after T. Kingfisher's book, but I stopped during chapter two because there was more cursing than I wanted to keep listening to.
"Tess of the Road" by Rachel Hartman was a lovely wandering fantasy. Tess, the protagonist, runs away from home to avoid being shunted off to a convent by her parents. It was a lovely story about growth and change and finding your path. I have some of Hartman's other books on hold through the library.
Yes, I've discovered the digital audiobooks through my local library and couldn't be happier.
"Daughter of the Bone Forest," by Jasmine Skye was another recommendation from Morgan. It was pretty good, it ended rather abruptly and is part of a duology. The second book is out later this year. The magic was interesting and so was the world. I did roll my eyes a little at the practicality of 21 hand horses.
I listened to "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin. I had heard quite a bit about it and knew some of the spoilers, but it was still quite good. There was cursing, but not enough to put me off. One sex scene I skipped through. I'm willing to skip over one, maybe two, but more than that and I put a book down (I'd rather there be none).
The latest one I just finished was "Howl's Moving Castle" by Diana Wynne Jones. It was absolutely charming. The main character, Sophie, was also quite charming and very likeable herself. There were little mysteries to solve and I got some of them answered, but others were surprising, but inevitable.
