It’s Been, One Week…

Week of April 29th – May 3rd.

Greetings book enthusiasts! It’s time, once again, to take a look at the week that has come and gone.

Oh, the Mundanity!

It feels like it’s been a month since I did any of this. That’s probably because I’ve been absolutely absorbed by the Trump trial in New York. Something I’m not particularly proud of, but I just can’t look away. It’s an overly publicized crazy train that could quite literally determine the outcome of the election.

That somehow led me into becoming much more interested in politics in general. A subject which I didn’t have much interest in. But the 2024 election is going to be a game changer in one way or another. If you want my full thoughts you can read my post in response to the Daily Prompt: Do you vote in political elections?

Fair warning: depending on which side of the shooting match you’re on, you may find some of my views…triggering.

From the Desk of the Admin

The management team has nothing to report at this time.

Book Stuff

Let’s get to the books!

I went to the library again and walked away with a veritable haul. She’s a hefty stack:

The first three books at the bottom of the stack belong to The Lotus War saga by Jay Kristoff is a series that I’ve wanted to read for awhile. I went ahead and grabbed the whole series despite owning the first book digitally because it’s the library. Sometimes if you don’t capitalize on an opportunity, you miss out.

The Lotus War saga is an Asian-inspired steampunk fantasy with a female lead. It’s hard to find a strong female protagonist in fantasy that isn’t just another Mary Sue, and I’m interested to see if Kristoff was able to pull it off with Yukiko.

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Moving on up, we’ve got books two and three of Jonathan French’s The Lot Lands series: The True Bastards and The Free Bastards, respectively.

The Lot Lands is Jonathan French’s low fantasy series that is most often blurbed as fantasy Sons of Anarchy. That’s right. It’s about a clan of war pig riding half-orcs that do their best to defend the Lot Lands from humans and psychotic centaurs. I read the first book, The Grey Bastards, in college and loved it. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t need to hop in the shower after every reading session. It’s a grim, gritty read.

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Next stop, we’ve got WOOL by Hugh Howey. The first book in the Silo series. This has been out long enough that there’s even a TV adaptation, so I don’t think it needs much introduction.

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And finally, at the top of the stack, we’ve got the first two books in a series I was completely unaware of until I picked it, almost at random, off the shelves. As is bound to happen at the library. That is: The Gates of the World by K.M. McKinley. The first book is The Iron Ship and the second book is The City of Ice.

I don’t know much about this series and I want to keep it that way going in. My only disappointment is that I don’t know where to find the third book without buying it. But I should probably figure out if I even like the first book before I go pining after book three too soon.

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Well, that’s it. Keeping it short this week.

Peace. ✌️