So what do you do when a bit of supposedly historical fiction has so many errors it would have been better called a fantasy? As they are just simple stuff to research. Everything I know about deep sea sailing I learned from novels about the Napoleonic wars and I can tell that the author of this volume hasn’t even done that much. It’s worse than reading a hack and slash story where you can just see the die rolls deciding the action.
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Ugh! Thanks for the warning.
Surprised you stuck with it!
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Oh, that’s an easy one.
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I’m reading a book called The Next Supper, and while I’m not very far into it yet it has had some cogent things to say about the restaurant industry. I’m really enjoying the breakdown of how kitchens work(ed) in fine dining. One reason I’m tired of hearing that people just don’t want to work anymore in foodservice is that I can recognize how having a long, enforced break from the cycle of overwork, stress, pressure and internalized expectations and norms let so many people see just how toxic the set up was.
When you are deep in it it’s all too easy to fall in with the mindset. I lost many a potential job because I straight up said that I had a life beyond the kitchen and I couldn’t/wasn’t going to give it up. Or when I pointed out that the wage plan they offered was against the law, as well as ethics.
I am delighted that the whole rock-star chef idea has gotten tarnished. Any of the shows that promoted abusive behavior as the norm, as what you should expect and what you deserved were shows I hated and railed against to friends, or strangers in bars if I saw one there. They play into the whole idea of “toughness” as a prime virtue, which leads inevitably to exploitation and cruelty.
I will post more as I get further into the book.
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So The Next Supper ended pretty well, covering many aspects of the food industry and ways to help it survive. Most of them were basic stuff, like not using 3rd party delivery services and asking about product sourcing. All in all, a worthwhile read.
On the other hand, I just started the latest by CJ Box and I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish it. He has this very odd idea about antifa and what it is and who is (was) doing the unrest in various cities. I know nothing about the author’s politics, but he seems to have swallowed a faux-news view of this whole. His books were much more enjoyable to me when they were more centered in the wilderness of Wyoming. One character is wearing a BLM patch and is described as a probable threat, “wearing his allegiance on his chest”. Arggh.
ETA: it’s gotten worse. The “antifas” are shown hiding a stash of rocks and rebar to “mess with the police”. The courts are described as “just letting these assholes out again” as soon as they are arrested. The man with the BLM patch is treated as an automatic ally when the “antifas” come looking for the stash. Apparently just displaying it makes him one of them. Also, Box confuses the anarchist A symbol as the antifa tag.
It really feels like he tweaked this whole subplot just so he could air his grievances. I mean, if he wants to write political crime stories, that’s fine. I could just do with less inaccurate crap in my story about a Wyoming game warden.
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“Thats Monsieur Godot to you, buddy!”
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Hope those are comfortable shoes, he’s going to be there for a while…
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From Cory’s [Plura-List] review of Daniel Pinkwater’s latest, “Crazy in Poughkeepsie”:
Pinkwater says that his books aren’t a celebration of weirdness. For me, this is a kind of koan, because reading Pinkwater’s books growing up made me the mutant I am today. What does it mean when the guru whose books about being weird tells you that his books are not about being weird? I have pondered this for years, and I think maybe it means that Pinkwater’s books are not a celebration of weirdness - rather, they reveal how abnormal normal is. Pinkwater’s characters and scenarios aren’t weird - rather, the “normal” we insist upon is so thin on the ground that it is the true weirdness. Indeed, the weirdest thing about “normal” is our unwillingness too acknowledge that it is not to be found outside of our fantasies of living in a normal, predictable world.
Perfectly said, IMO. Daniel Pinkwater has been coming to my rescue since I was in sixth grade, and I think he’s exactly what I need right now. I’m going to take a field trip to my local bookseller at lunchtime.
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Just read it a few minutes ago and to my shame I don’t think I’ve ever read Daniel Pinkwater. He made me want to change that though.
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This was way more fun than i was expecting.
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It’s world book day!!!
Currently reading this (the first book, A Little Devil in America):
http://www.abdurraqib.com/book
It’s lovely…
ETA: Adding to this post, since I have 2 in a row already… finished with A Little Devil in America and onto this:
So far, so good! A nice slice of LGBQT+ and ATL history…
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Lots of good books here about people who long for a different life path.
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Ok, I like a good cheesy techno-thriller as much as anyone, but this one is just being irritating in stupid ways. Lincoln Child writes slightly bizarre mysteries with Douglas Preston, but on his own he tends toward the scientists make big discovery about (probably) aliens and then the government/military wrecks everything. Usually the big (probably) alien thing is destroyed along the way.
So Deep Storm starts with an offshore oil rig making some discovery, then cuts two years forward. In that time frame the US military has managed to to construct a massive dome on the ocean floor with a 12! story research facility inside it, sequester a huge number of people to do the work and create a drilling rig that will work at those depths to excavate whatever they found down there. Then people start getting sick in weird ways so they call in a doctor, ex navy submariner, to figure shit out. He swans in, repeatedly ignores what people are telling him, eventually understands that the (woman) dr. already on site might know what she’s talking about and, finally, starts trying to find a solution.
So the the whole thing is just lazy. Our hero apparently knows all of medical science because he can read a EEG as easily as he performs a post-mortem. The facility is described as having a pathology lab, but the PM is carried out in the OR. The conflict between the good guys (science!) and the bad guys (military who want the (probably)alien tech for the good old USA!) is ridiculous, there is never a clear idea of what day it is, or how much time has passed since Our Hero arrives on scene. He seems to have expected to walk in, fix things and walk out again. When it takes more than 24 hours everyone seems confused.
Many things are done on fancy tablets -like all medical records are digital, but the EEG tracings are on paper. There’s some sort of sabotage, but it’s kind of half-hearted. No real reason for it has emerged by the 3/4 mark.
There’s a “contemporary” description of the arrival of the object now under the ocean floor that’s so floridly written that no one of the alleged period would understand it.
It all feels formulaic and mailed in. This author’s other stuff is still pretty good, so the disappointment is acute. Not sure if I will finish listening.
Just started reading it this evening. I’m two chapters in and loving it so far.
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Looks interesting!
I’m just finishing up the first book of this duology…
https://nkjemisin.com/series/the-dreamblood/
Excellent use of Egyptian history/mythos.
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It is so far and very funny. I’ll be reading more this evening.
I’m going to have to add that one to my reading list, it sounds like something I would enjoy.
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