I bought "Spiderlight" by Adrian Tchaikovsky yesterday during an Audible sale, just because I liked his "Children of Time" series. I didn't even read the blurb closely. It was on sale. I'd probably like it.
I'm two chapters in and it appears to be a story from the point of view of one of the giant spiders in Mirkwood. Alternating with human viewpoints, too. I really didn't expect Tolkien fanfic in this format. It's OK so far.
"Aargragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
I put the book on hold, and until it comes, I won't have any insight, but that's not going to stop me.
Mirkwood may not be copyrighted, and giant spiders are fair game AFAIK, but giant spiders of Mirkwood are very specific creatures.
"Aargragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
Jude wrote: ↑Sat Apr 05, 2025 12:40 pm
I had thought someone here recommended "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus, but I searched and can't find a post mentioning it. So I don't know where I heard of that book.
Anyway, I can't recommend it too highly. The main character a woman pursuing a scientific career in the 1950's and 60's finds herself, by a strange set of circumstances, hosting a cooking show where she approaches cooking from a scientific point of view and explains to her audience the chemistry behind cooking.
LOVED this book.
I'm looking forward to watching the mini-series.
I think Apple TV did one a year or two ago. I'm going to see if it can watch it on Plex. I've seen a few bits on YouTube.
I really enjoy it when a writer starts the story in the middle, then goes back filling in the history of their character and what makes them tick, then they bring it all together in the end.
RoseMorninStar wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 3:26 pm
I really enjoy it when a writer starts the story in the middle, then goes back filling in the history of their character and what makes them tick, then they bring it all together in the end.
I've been hit with that too much lately and am really starting to dislike that technique. Lots of flashbacks can be difficult to follow in audio form.
In the bonus interview with the author, she says this book sprung from an earlier unfinished, unpublished book she started - the daughter is going through some old stuff and discovers a book about her mother hosting a cooking show decades earlier. I would like to read that book, if she ever decides to finish it.
RoseMorninStar wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 3:26 pm
I really enjoy it when a writer starts the story in the middle, then goes back filling in the history of their character and what makes them tick, then they bring it all together in the end.
I've been hit with that too much lately and am really starting to dislike that technique. Lots of flashbacks can be difficult to follow in audio form.
These are not flashbacks. It begins in 1960 and then goes back to roughly 10 years earlier and works it's way linearly to 1960 and beyond. So, not a constant back & forth.
Jude, that would be an interesting read. Given that I was born/grew up in the 60's I found the attitudes and struggles in 'Lessons in Chemistry' to be very real from what I recall/my experiences. It reminds me that we (women/minorities) have come a long way and to lose what we have gained in those years would be devastating.
Yes, all of this is unpleasantly familiar to me, too, having been a kid in the mid 50s and 60s. And it didn't stop then. "Lady Engineers" are still an anomaly, not always taken seriously. But I am enjoying the book.
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
narya wrote: ↑Mon Apr 28, 2025 9:49 pm
Yes, all of this is unpleasantly familiar to me, too, having been a kid in the mid 50s and 60s. And it didn't stop then. "Lady Engineers" are still an anomaly, not always taken seriously. But I am enjoying the book.
While there are some sad, hard realities in the book, there is dessert.
Just finished "The Rose Code" by Kate Quinn - a novel about three women who worked at Bletchley Park during the war - a real page-turner. Can highly recommend.
The epilogue contains some historical notes about Bletchley Park and the real women that the characters are based on.
The author is new to me, but I've just reserved "The Alice Network" by her, based on my experience with this book.
I do not recommend "Asunder" by Kerstin Hall. Lots of points for originality and unpredictability... but those are outweighed by the horror factor and the unlikeableness of the protagonist. I really don't like some of the images that story left in my mind.
Stop the presses, I actually finished a book. Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold is like Mowgli meets A Game of Thrones, but the world is not as brutal as G. R.R. Martin's. It's not very deep or challenging, but I like that the plot revolves on main characters being sensible and gravitating to kindness when given a chance.
"Aargragaah. It mean lit’rally der time when you see dem little pebbles and you jus’ know dere’s gonna be a great big landslide on toppa you and it already too late to run. Dat moment, dat’s aagragaah.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
I'm reading Cleek, The Man of Forty Faces by Thomas Hanshew.
It's the first of a series of cloak-and-dagger adventures written just before WWI, with protagonist Hamilton Cleek (a Nóm de guerre), master of disguise and master crook turned Scotland Yard detective.
Much high-flown melodrama and derring-do, and I'm not sure I'll ever connect with the characters, but I'll persist with this one, at least, in my quest to explore out of copyright literature.
Mornings wouldn't suck so badly if they came later in the day.
