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Reading Roundup, Q2 2024 · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to you pick up and deliver the podcast where
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I pick up my audio recorder as I leave the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: library and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good morning, listeners. It's a lovely
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: day here in suburban Chicago. I'm on my walk home
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: from dropping off some books at the library and thought
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I would talk to you a little bit.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: About books I was looking.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: And it has been nearly two months since I did
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: a book a round up episode, and normally I try
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to do these every three but I did the last
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: one kind of late, so I thought I would do
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: this a little bit earlier. That's right, It's time for
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: book round Up for quarter two of twenty twenty four.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: If those of you knew this kind of episode, this
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: is going to be mostly focused on the reading I've
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: been doing recently, and so if you don't want to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: talk books with me, maybe this isn't the best episode
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to listen to. On the other hand, I will also
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: talk about games.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: A little bit.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Think about one game that fits the theme or the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: idea of the book, and if I can and mention
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: that as well, so there's still something to get out
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: of it. For my game focused friends, but mostly we're
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: going to be talking books today. Well, as I said,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I divide my reading up by quarter, so I do
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: keep tracking good Reads. If you want to find me there,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the easiest way to do that.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Is just to go to the.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Rattlebox Games show page for this episode, and you'll find
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: links to my good Reads there and you can follow
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: me there. But I do keep track of my reading
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: on good Reads, and I post I tag each book
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that I read with a quarter as well as the year.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: So like all the books I'll be talking about here
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: are tagged two oh two four Q two because.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: They're in quarter two. That's part of how I keep track.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: At the end of the year, I delete all of
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the quarter tags and just have everything under the year.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: But for the purposes of this podcast especially, it's really
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: nice to organize things that way. We'll have nine books
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that I read in quarter two. I don't have time
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: to talk about nine on the podcast. I usually get
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: four or five discussed.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to aim for and I'll just mention
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the other ones if I can. So let's just jump
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: right in.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: These are not in chronological order, but rather in the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: order of books I'm most interested to tell you about.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: The first one is The Toll by Sherry Priest. Now,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Sherry Priest is a really interesting writer. I've read some
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of her stuff, but not very much, but she's written
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a lot and I think she's pretty good. She writes
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: in the horror space and steampunk. This book in particular
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: is very much sort of Gothic horror or Southern Gothic horror.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: The premise is there's a town and on your way
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: to the town from one part of I think it's
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: in the town's in Louisiana. It could be in North
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Florida maybe, or southern Georgia. It's somewhere in there. If
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you're on your way to the town from this one direction,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you'll go over six bridges. If you ever find a
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: seventh bridge, you're in trouble. That's kind of the idea,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and going.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Over the bridge has a toll. I don't want to
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: tell you.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Too much more about it, except that it's a lovecrafty
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and supernatural story with some really interesting writerly turn in it.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: There's one moment in particular that I found very compelling,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to share that now for about a minute,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: So if you don't want to hear a twist in
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the story that I don't think is a huge plot point,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: but it is a plot point turn away.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: So there is this moment in the book that's really fascinating.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: This character goes into a room and he realizes the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: room is full of ghosts. And at first you're thinking, oh,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: maybe he means memories, but no, there's.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Actually ghosts in there.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: And the author, Nonal Sherry Pries's nonchalantly reveals that ghosts
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: are visible in this town. People know who they are,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: they see them every day. They're just like people who
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: live in the town, only their ghosts. And we have
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: characters that we've met thus far in the story that
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: it turns out our ghosts, and we didn't know they
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: were ghosts because the book didn't tell us that, But
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: now we're learning that in the reflection there. It's a clever,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: a really masterful turn of writing that makes for a
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: very compelling moment in the book about halfway through. I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: don't think that ruins anything for you. I think the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: book is good enough to stand on its own, but
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it's such a really compelling moment in the book I
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: had to stop and go back.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And reread it. Just to make sure I understood what
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I was seeing.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, this book, like I said, has the sort
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of love crafty and elements. Clearly, this is very suited
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: for an Arkham Horror style story. The main character, the
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: main character is the way they interact with the world,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the stuff going on. It's all very compelling and I
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: think would make for an excellent scenario or campaign in
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Arkham Horror the card game. In fact, I'm kind of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: inclined to make a fan made scenario built on that story.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I have to think about that, but yeah, that's The
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Toll by Sherry Priest.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Next tip I want to talk about, The Word is Murder.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Anthony Horowitz is a very well known screenwriter and novelist
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: who's written tons of books, and he has.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: This book called The Word Is Murdered.
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  Speaker 1: There's essentially like his take on the Sherlock Holmes myth us.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: In the book.
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  Speaker 1: He plays the doctor Watson character, but he's writing as
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: if it's himself. He is signing it as Anthony Horowitz.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: He's writing about stuff that quote unquote happened to him
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and this genius detective who's sort of socially inept or
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: socially antagonistic to most people who he's working.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: With, but he doesn't really like him all that much.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: It's very compelling, really interesting writing, very thoughtful as a
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: modern take on Sherlock Holmes without ever mentioning that that's
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: what it is. And I understand there's more of them.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I think I'm going to read more of them because
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I really liked it. So if you think that sounds
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: interesting to you, you should check out The Word as
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Murder by Anthony Horowitz. Of course, if you're going to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: play that, you should probably play Watson and Holmes the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Competitive Mystery game. I would suggest that one as the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: accompaniment or the version of this that you might encounter,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: because Watson Holmes is a little antagonistic. As a game,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you are competing with other mystery solvers to try to
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: solve the mystery first, and Horowitz and his detective character
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the name of the character are having
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: an interesting conflict or contradiction between them, and so that
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: fits the process better than something like Sherlock Comes Consulting Detective.
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  Speaker 1: So if you have a chance, the Word Is Murder.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: It's an excellent book recommended. Next up, we have Geek Love.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Geek Love was written by Catherine Dunn, and it is.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I guess it's a book I encountered in a number
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: of places and I kept seeing it, so I thought
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: it must be good because it kept coming across my
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: transfer are getting recommended, and it is good. But it's
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: really strange. I'm not sure if I liked it or not.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It was very compelling, but I'm not sure that's the same.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: The premise is it's a double storyline in which we
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: have one narrator in two parts of her life. We
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: have the narrator or the main character when she is
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: a child or a teen, and the narrator when she.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Is an adult or an older adult, like in her
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: sixties or fifties.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: And the idea is that in both cases we are
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: learning this story of her in her family.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Her family is.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: A group of people who own a circus that the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: center part of their circus is what we classically would
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: call a freak show, or a big part of it
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: is these performers who are showing off physical abnormalities and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: doing so to the delight of paying customers. It's a
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: traveling carnival that goes from town to town in this
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: caravan of trucks and part of the premise is that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: the family that runs it are people who have these
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: physical differences that are caused by intentional manipulation of the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: fetuses by the father while they're in utero. It's really
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: messed up, and there's a number of things in this
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: book that are just really grotesque, both from a physical
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: description standpoint, but also from an ethical, moral standpoint or
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: character development standpoint.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: It's a really disturbing book in some ways, but.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Very compelling, really well written, very thoughtful about how people
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: engage with the world, and as such, pretty interesting and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: compelling enough that I definitely wanted to finish it, and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I found myself intrigued all the way through. But again
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I liked it.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Definitely worth checking out it. It's one awards and stuff,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: so it's very well written. That's Geeklove.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: And of course, as I think about two games that
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: could thematically connect.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: With reading Geek Glove. On the one hand, I think.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Of The Bloody, in which features a horrifying family, and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: there is a second there's an expansion for it which
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I have but have not played, called The Carnies. So
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: The Bloody and the Carnes feels like one approach not
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: very thoughtful or helpful to circus folk in terms of stereotypes.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: And then the other one, of course, is The Magnificent
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the Christian. I'm an aspy game about running a circus
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and attracting people and stuff. That game is really good,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: very interesting. I have an expansion for that one as
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: well that I have not played. So the two things
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: mixed together really are compelling and interesting. So that's The
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Magnificent and the Bloody in with the Carney's expansion as
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: a follow up to Geek Love by Catherine Dunn. Next up,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I read Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Kirsten Miller. Now, this is a book about a town
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: fighting over book banning and the idea of how education
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: shapes people. It is a mix of really compelling character work.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Kristin Miller is a very strong writer of particularly villains
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: in the nature of the kind of most odious Stephen
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: King or JK. Rowling villains, but also also a really
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: thoughtful approach to the question of how should communities heal
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: from these kinds of attacks and ill wishes. So it's
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: a book that speaks to this moment right now, I
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: would say, it also feels a bit utopian or almost
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: naive in its.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Resolution of these issues.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: It feels a little too pat It can feel nice
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: to have this kind of experience, but it also just
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: is a little disheartening to think, could it really work
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: this way?
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Could it really be this way?
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: So that's Lula Dean's little library of Banned Books. I
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: did also in quarter two read two different Charles Strass
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Laundry Files books. I read The Annihilation Score and Nightmare Stacks.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: I really like the Annihilation Score. It was a strong
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: outing from Strass. I thought that the introduction of the
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: internal character of the demon in the White Violin was
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: very strong. And having a book from Moe's perspective of
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Mo being Maureen being the wife of the Laundry File's
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: main character Bob up to that point, I thought that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Mo really brought a fresh perspective to it. And I
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: think that that is the continuing process from here on out.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I think Strass is taking other people's perspectives for the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: next few books. I don't know if he ever goes
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: back to Bob Howard or not. Again, these are books
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: about being investigators and Lovecraftian things. I would think the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: game that would go, this is not Ourkham Horror, because
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: in that game you are not official. Your private eyes
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: are your interested citizens, academics and whatnot. Instead, I would
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: point to the Bureau of Investigation or Bureau of Paranormal Investigation.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I can't remember exactly what it's called.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: The Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective spin off that sort of
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: branches into mythos tales territory by creating grotesque Lovecraft inspired
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: stories in the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective style.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: It's pretty good. I liked it.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Not as good as Consulting Detective, so I would caution.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: You on that.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Also, not as much bang for your buck in terms
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: of the mysteries. You only get five mysteries in the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: box instead of the ten that you get for the
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: most Sherlock Holmes boxes. Nonetheless, pretty entertaining in a really
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: good way to think about something like the Laundry Files books.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I will say I also really did like the Nightmare Stacks,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: which involves another character entirely. It makes me think that
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the future books are going to involve.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Different characters each time.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: That is the Annihilation's Score and Nightmare Stacks, right, I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: do have one to three more books I wanted to
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: mention that I did read, but I won't have time
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to talk about in depth. I read Going Infinite by
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Michael Lewis. This is a short book kind of painting
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: a picture of the rise and follow of Sam Bankman Freed,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: who ran at X, the largest cryptocurrency trading house in
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the world, and ended up going to jail for fraud.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Part of what's really interesting that Michael Lewis has revealed
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is that it looks like there really.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Wasn't much fraud.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: He was very sloppy in his management of the finances.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: But the company, the receivership company that came in to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: take over the company after they declared bankruptcy, was looking
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: for something like thirteen million or thirteen billion dollars of
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: missing assets, and as of the writing a book, they
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: found almost all of it. That none of it was stolen.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: It was all just like kind of laying around in
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: different bank accounts and stuff. It hadn't been properly tracked,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: but it didn't. It doesn't look like most of it
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: was stolen. Some of it was hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: So it's not nothing but really interesting book just because
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Michael Lewis wrote it, though, like I don't find Sam
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Banker and Freed particularly interesting.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I found him obnoxious.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And the people who enabled him obnoxious, and really speaks
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to the way that money circulates in our culture, which
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't like, So I'm not sure
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: i'd recommend that one. If you haven't read any Michael Lewis,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: go read the Big Short. It's much better for the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: fifth what it called the fifth risk.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: That one's really good. All right? Two more.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I read a graphic novel called star Crost by Jerry Frison.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I did not catch the name of the artist's apologies.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Starcrost is a story about first contact and two of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the alien one of the alien conversationalists and one of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the human contest fationalists, and a budding love story between them.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And finally, doctor Olif von Schuler's Brain by Kirsten mender Anderson.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: This is a short story collection themed around a family,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: where each story is another generation of the family, and
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: there are various intrigues into the study of medicine, particularly
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the study of the brain, and the weird places they
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: find themselves in. It was well written because the short
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: stories were all Disconnected. I found it really hard to
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: be compelling, and it took me a very long time
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: to read. I put it down a couple times. I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: suspect if I go back and look at when I
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: read the first page of it, it probably it took
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: me a year to read, and it's not that long.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: I just it was an off again, on again book.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: But because of the series of short stories, it doesn't
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: even it wasn't that hard.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: So, dear listeners, what have you been reading lately?
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Head over to board game Geek Guild three two sixty
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: nine and shure you're reading lists there. I'd love to
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: befriend you on Goodreads and we can talk books there,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and I'd love to know what games.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: You think could go with the books that you've read.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: If you want to reach out to me, you can
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: send me a direct message on board game Geek. Wombat
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: nine two nine is my username, or you can send
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: me an email Brendan at Radebox games dot com.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me on my walk today. I hope
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: your next walk thusands is minds by.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Bye, brought to you by Rattlebox Game m