I've got two words that are going to make all the pain go away. Miniature Golf.

Mayor ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


-t - May 17, 2025 4:01:36 pm PDT #28292 of 28333
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

That sounds good, and my library has it immediately available. Big score because I have maxed out my holds…


JenP - May 17, 2025 6:33:16 pm PDT #28293 of 28333

OK! I have added several books to my hold list at the library from just a brief scroll-back here, thank you all very much. I also added three from roaming two bookstores with my aunt today (visiting her at the beach).


JenP - May 20, 2025 10:32:52 am PDT #28294 of 28333

I just picked up The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, The Crying of Lot 49, Watership Down (a weird, gaping hole in my history), and a Robertson Davies, because I love him and haven't read him in years. Yay, books. I still have The Three Body Problem, and so far, so good.

I think the rest will take a while to come in. I hope.


-t - May 20, 2025 10:36:12 am PDT #28295 of 28333
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Ooh, good choices.

I’m reading Asunder by Kerstin Hall, I’m not sure why I picked it up but I think it’s up for a Hugo. I’m 75% through it and it’s very good so far


JenP - May 20, 2025 1:01:56 pm PDT #28296 of 28333

I just looked it up -- intriguing!


-t - May 20, 2025 4:20:42 pm PDT #28297 of 28333
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

It reminds me a little of the Penric stories conceptualy, but a very different world and characters and everything. It was reminding me of something else yesterday, but I have already forgotten what...


-t - May 22, 2025 1:10:17 pm PDT #28298 of 28333
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Finished Asunder. And found out it's the Nebula it's up for, not a Hugo. Not that I know the difference. Anyway, the ending is not a bad ending but is not the ending I wanted and has me hoping there is a sequel where certain things can be fixed. Not to dissuade anyone from reading it but there is some emotional risk in getting involved with these characters.

Back to Christopher Moore with Secondhand Souls. Not very far into it but it is reinforcing my dislike of Fisher Stevens as a narrator (I like when the credits say "performed by" but turning that into a noun just doesn't work in my head). Unfortunate as he's done some of my favorite books of Moore's and lately I prefer audiobooks to any other kind. Not that he's bad to the point of ruining the book but I do get distracted by wishing he made different choices for his performance.


JenP - May 22, 2025 3:11:43 pm PDT #28299 of 28333

I hear you on that, boy howdy. I love audio books, but I have many preferences that I didn't really know I had until I started listening to them. I tend to prefer straight up narration that is acting-adjacent rather than Acting the Story. Generally. I did just listen to a couple with an actual actor who did a phenomenal job. I... can't remember who it was off the top of my head.

I tend not to love the multi-actor as characters ones unless I put myself in the mind frame of listening to, like, a radio play, but not all books work well in that format.


-t - May 22, 2025 3:49:30 pm PDT #28300 of 28333
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Yeah, I have really loved some actual radio plays but I generally prefer one good narrator to a full cast audiobook. Not sure if that is inherent to the form or just the particular ones I have listened to, it's not a huge sample. That said, I have just now developed the theory that with a cast there are more opportunities to make decisions I don't like - the casting, the direction, the individual performances. And I'm gonna guess the full cast versions are more likely to be abridged, though once again that could just be what I've listened to


Consuela - May 22, 2025 10:33:35 pm PDT #28301 of 28333
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

Yeah, I got really annoyed when I couldn't find the audiobook version of the last Murderbot novel, and had to settle for a dramatization. It wasn't as good, IMO.

Currently reading Lev Grossman's The Bright Sword, and I cannot quite figure out what he's doing. It's kind of a mashup of le Morte d'Arthur and The Once and Future King but it's set after Arthur dies, and ... I dunno. It's not really working for me but i want to give it a chance. But it's also longer than I want.