Phil in SF started reading A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton (Merry Gentry, #1)
Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in …
Had this in my TBR for a while (since like 2009). Let's see if I like it.
Reviews and Comments
aka @kingrat@sfba.social. I'm following a lot of bookwyrm accounts, since that seems to be the only way to get reviews from larger servers to this small server. Also, I will like & boost a lot of reviews that come across my feed. I will follow most bookwyrm accounts back if they review & comment. Social reading should be social.
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Phil in SF commented on King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography …
Bookwyrm now has a complete list of all Pulitzer Prize winners in Biography (so far) with the addition of this book. On SFBA.club, all the entries have descriptions & the best cover image I could find. Other servers don't always pick those up from here, so your mileage may vary.
Phil in SF stopped reading The Wall by Gautam Bhatia (Sumer, #1)
‘Imagine a horizon.’
‘I can’t.’
Mithila’s world is bound by a Wall enclosing the city …
Meh. So around the city of Sumer for generations has existed the Wall. There's like 15 circles inside the wall, and the Elders and Shoortans and other groups have some sort of complicated ruling system. But noone is to go outside the Wall or even attempt it. This is, so far, the story of a group of young people who dream of leaving.
However, there's little in the story that makes me care if they succeed, nor can I bring myself to care that there's intrigue between the powerful groups.
Phil in SF reviewed Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston (Henry Thompson, #2)
Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that …
Enjoyable, but repeats elements of book 1
3 stars
Henry Thompson is living the life of a fugitive in Mexico, where his stolen money goes a lot further than in the US. And where he's a lot safer. Until a Russian shows up, recognizes him, and tries to collect the money. Henry survives the encounter, but concocts a plan to return to the US.
So thus begins the new descent, which follows a lot of the same plot elements as book 1. Multiple groups chasing Henry for money he doesn't have in his possession but which he could theoretically lead them to. Bad guys betraying other bad guys. People getting killed, many of them by Henry himself.
The main differences this time? Henry doesn't feel quite as bad as before when he hurts people. And instead of being chased through the streets of New York, he's being chased from Mexico to California to Las Vegas.
Still fun, but doesn't …
Henry Thompson is living the life of a fugitive in Mexico, where his stolen money goes a lot further than in the US. And where he's a lot safer. Until a Russian shows up, recognizes him, and tries to collect the money. Henry survives the encounter, but concocts a plan to return to the US.
So thus begins the new descent, which follows a lot of the same plot elements as book 1. Multiple groups chasing Henry for money he doesn't have in his possession but which he could theoretically lead them to. Bad guys betraying other bad guys. People getting killed, many of them by Henry himself.
The main differences this time? Henry doesn't feel quite as bad as before when he hurts people. And instead of being chased through the streets of New York, he's being chased from Mexico to California to Las Vegas.
Still fun, but doesn't feel as new.
Phil in SF commented on Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston (Henry Thompson, #2)
Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that …
i didn't get any reading done during the week, but now I'm back at it. the book doesn't have the same down-and-outer thrust into a crime hook that book 1 did, but i like it so far.
Phil in SF commented on You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
Bestselling author, speaker and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, Hatcuts through the din of the …
And with this book, I am caught up on adding all the books from If Books Could Kill to the Bookwyrm list. If you look at the list on SFBA.club, all the books have high quality covers & descriptions. On other instances, those components may not be recently updated.
Phil in SF commented on The Origins of Woke by Richard Hanania
Richard Hanania has emerged as one of the most talked-about writers in the nation, and …
This is book 29 on the list of books from If Books Could Kill. I find it kind of hilarious that noone on Bookwyrm had read the book and 15 months after publication, it still wasn't in OpenLibrary under its actual title. Hanania's only traction off Twitter is Michael Hobbes podcast that rips the book.
Phil in SF commented on Atomic Habits by James Clear
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, …
I have read Atomic Habits, which is the 16th book on the list of books from If Books Could Kill. (Well, the audiobook that is.) Some of the tips seemed okay, but there was some obvious BS as well.
Phil in SF commented on Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo …
I'm putting together a list containing all the books from the If Books Could Kill podcast. Of the first 15, I've only read the first, Freakonomics. I gave it 4 stars, but that shows how gullible I can be.
Phil in SF started reading Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston (Henry Thompson, #2)
Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that …
Liked the first book so much I'm starting the second immediately.
Phil in SF reviewed Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston (Henry Thompson, #1)
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a …
Straight up loved this
5 stars
Henry Thompson had his leg broken attempting to steal a base, ending his baseball career in high school. Then he drives a car too fast and kills a buddy. Moves to New York from California with a girl only for her to get a traveling job and leave him in the dust. When the novel starts, Henry Thompson is a bartender in the middle of a bender, but actually living a decent life of a loser without real prospects. Then he gets beaten up by Russians, who it turns out are looking for Henry's neighbor next apartment over, who has skipped town leaving Henry to watch his cat. Stuck in the cat's carrier is a key and criminals want it.
I was hooked. Henry makes bad decisions, but not "go back into the chainsaw room in a horror film" bad. So Henry pinballs around the story between various criminal factions …
Henry Thompson had his leg broken attempting to steal a base, ending his baseball career in high school. Then he drives a car too fast and kills a buddy. Moves to New York from California with a girl only for her to get a traveling job and leave him in the dust. When the novel starts, Henry Thompson is a bartender in the middle of a bender, but actually living a decent life of a loser without real prospects. Then he gets beaten up by Russians, who it turns out are looking for Henry's neighbor next apartment over, who has skipped town leaving Henry to watch his cat. Stuck in the cat's carrier is a key and criminals want it.
I was hooked. Henry makes bad decisions, but not "go back into the chainsaw room in a horror film" bad. So Henry pinballs around the story between various criminal factions trying to get hold of the key, never making a choice that made me groan.
Despite being the kind of alcoholic jerk I would hate in real life, the story gives enough of a peek into his internal thoughts while trying to be decent that I liked him and wanted to see him make it.
And there's just enough hook in the story that I wanted to see how the conspiracy that envelops Henry came to be, and how it turns out for everyone. What's the key to? Will Henry remember where he put the key? Why are two groups of criminals looking for it? Is there anyone who can help Henry? Huston's well-crafted writing reveals just enough at the right times to keep me wanting to know what will happen next.
I'm going to attempt to put a content warning with a spoiler in a follow-up reply. Check that if certain kinds of violence make you squeamish.
Phil in SF commented on Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston (Henry Thompson, #1)
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a …
This has hooked me.
Phil in SF started reading Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston (Henry Thompson, #1)
Henry “call me Hank” Thompson used to play California baseball. Now he tends to a …
Pulling one off my mountain of unread books.
Phil in SF reviewed The Oxygen Farmer by Colin Holmes
After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …
Bleah
2 stars
The prose is merely functional. There's a lot of "As you know, Bob..." Using the wrong words. Using the wrong math.
And at 27%, i still don't care about the central mystery: a radiation filled lunar vehicle buried under regolith in the center of a forbidden zone. Apparently a secret landing on the moon in the 1980s. But there's no reason for me as a reader to care. The MC gets an itch to find out the story, but that's the only hook. The MC being curious is not transitive to the reader. There's no stakes.
Phil in SF started reading The Oxygen Farmer by Colin Holmes
After 35 years of living on the Moon, cranky old oxygen farmer Millennium Harrison has …
I have no recollection of putting this on my hold list at the library. Now that I have it I'm going to give it a shot but something is screaming to me that this will be one I put down. It's SF but neither the author nor the book is on ISFDB. So I half expect to post a DNF message in a couple days.