The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes.
I heard his last book (or what he claims is his last book) “Departure(s)” is out today and looked up what other stuff he’s done, this one caught my eye being a very snarky collection of essays about cooking and cookbook authors.
Oh boy, you are in for a RIDE. How far into it are you?
Beyond the 8 books of the Dark Tower proper, there are a BUNCH of books that touch that part of the King Universe. Eyes of the Dragon, It, Insomnia, Desperation and the Regulators, Rose Madder, Hearts in Atlantis, The Talisman (indirectly), Black House (Talisman sequel, directly connects it together), The Stand, The Shining, Salem’s Lot. Fairy Tale is similar enough, but not directly related.
There’s a 3rd Talisman book coming this year as well.
“Left on read” - She gets his messages but does not read them. His icon on Discord probably has a [328] next to it.
Listen to this song with the transcript open:
She has a Christian cross on and the wolfman shrimp hybrid is wearing a yarmulke meaning Jewish.
Which is funnier on a whole other level because shrimp are not kosher.
https://www.jccmb.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1339532/jewish/Shrimp.htm
Do you think Greenland would accept America’s for profit healthcare system? 😉
Not as complicated as it was back in the day when you had to manage Extended RAM vs. Expanded RAM.
I tend to agree with this. I had given up on PC gaming by 2004 so did not play HL2 until the Orange Box on Xbox in 2007 and my reaction was “Jesus this is boring!”
I’ve tried to replay it a couple of times since then, most recently on Steam Deck, but it just doesn’t click with me and I give up around the Canals.
Tales From the Loop got adapted for Amazon Prime and Electric State was adapted for Netflix. I enjoyed Electric State, but other than the name, look, and feel, it didn’t really adapt the book.
Haven’t seen Tales From the Loop yet.
Sunset at Zero Point likely couldn’t get made in the current political environment due to it being a sweet gay romance book. Think sci-fi version of “Moonlight.”
Good definition here:
https://writers.com/literary-fiction-vs-genre-fiction
"Now, if you ask 100 different writers about what makes literary fiction “literary,” you could easily get 100 different answers. You might hear that, opposed to genre fiction, lit fic is:
Character-driven (instead of plot driven).
Complex and thematic.
Based on real-life situations.
Focused on life lessons and deeper meanings."
and:
“Perhaps the best way to think about literary fiction is that it’s uncategorizable. Unlike genre fiction, which can be broken down even further into different types of fiction genres, lit fic doesn’t fall neatly into any of the genre boxes. Some literary fiction examples include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.”
I’d argue that “To Kill a Mockingbird” is in the “Legal Fiction” genre, along with the Perry Mason books and the John Grisham novels, but “Legal Fiction” isn’t a category you find in bookstores. 😉
Speaking of Sweden… I just blew through all the Simon Stålenhag books. Good reads with gorgeous art!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Stålenhag
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Tales-From-the-Loop/Simon-Stalenhag/9781982150693
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Things-From-the-Flood/Simon-Stalenhag/9781982150716
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Electric-State/Simon-Stalenhag/9781501181412
https://www.simonstalenhag.se/labyrinth.html
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sunset-at-Zero-Point/Simon-Stalenhag/9781668096413
(published outside the US as “Swedish Machines”)
"I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live …”
If anyone needs proof he’s just making this all up as he goes along and has no real plan…
Rock is on a side road so has to stop.
Scissors and paper go first, scissors cuts paper, then rock breaks scissors.
I already beat a 50% 5 year rate on the heart stuff so I got that going for me! 😉
Oh, they KNOW! 😉
I’ll take it! 😉
Well, it wasn’t entirely out of the blue, there were biopsies 6 months ago and they sent me photos, which made me go “Hey, that’s fucking cancer!” but the people with actual degrees in this were saying “No, no, it’s pre-cancer.”
So on the one hand I get to tell the doctors “SEE! SEE!” 😉
When they pull something out of you that looks like Tetsuo from the end of Akira… yeah…
Oh yeah, I have a good team of doctors!
That’s the plan!
After book 4 I’d read, at a minimum, Insomnia and Hearts in Atlantis. Insomnia came out in the (FIVE YEAR!) gap between 3 and 4. Hearts in Atlantis shortly after 4.
But the Stand is never a bad choice!
Fair warning, I didn’t think books 5-7 were as good as the first four. He stops doing the flashbacks to young Roland and there are gaps in that story now.