S&L Podcast - #474 - The Vibe-rary at Mt. Char
/Best books of the year? Already? How Veronica got her k-wires out. And our non-spoilery thoughts on Library at Mount Char.
WHAT ARE WE NOMMING?
Tom: Orange Chicken, brown rice, spicy fish cake, gai lan
Veronica: Pumpkin spice syrup
QUICK BURNS
Chris K: Apparently it is not too early for best of the year lists to start appearing. Here are the Barnes & Noble Best Books of the Year 2023 lists for fantasy and science fiction. (via Locus)
Jan: From Locus Mag: The 2023 Utopia Award Winner for best Utopian Novel is "The World We Make" by N. K. Jemisin
Liqorice Margaret Atwood comments on the current state of AI and its threat to writers.
BARE YOUR SWORD
terpkristin: I'm glad your K-wires are out! Did you save them? Sorry it was uncomfortable/painful. I've found most things are as I get older, certainly nothing like it was when I was in my 20's.
I haven't really made much progress in China Mountain Zhang. I find it easy to put down. But I enjoyed y'alls thoughts on it. It made me want to read it more. Too bad it's not backlit.
Thanks for keeping going with the show. One of the things I look forward to every other week (sometimes more!). I really enjoyed the interview with Felicia Day, too (though I was traveling when it came out and didn't easily get to post about it)."
William
Looking forward to listening. I don't yet know the source of the episode title, but I actually used that phrase to describe myself years ago after being asked to categorize an entire library of books. I was seeing codes when I closed my eyes.
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
TLAMC: Book Vibes
"Decado: There’s a real lack of description in this book I’m finding. I have no idea what anyone looks like, what their surroundings look like, etc. I don’t feel any sort of grounding in this world. This is the same problem I had with Gideon the Ninth that made me lem it.
I tend to lean in the direction of liking things to be over-descriptive. I’m also reading Ninth House right now and I love the lush descriptions in that book."
"tilltab
How strange - I seem to be finding the book very visual and easy to picture - likewise for Gideon. I guess it’s just that the way things are described here matches the way I ‘see’ things."
eytanz: It mostly reminded me of Gideon the nineth in that the mismatch between the writing tone and events was the hardest thing to get used to
"tilltab
I’m loving it so far, so maybe I should check out House of Leaves! I love it when stories unfold like this, with you slowly learning about what is happening and why. I was gripped from the very start, and love the way I care about Carolyn, even though it’s clear from the get go she’d done, and will do, some incredibly shady things."
"Gristle McNerd
With all the grimdark and the vaguely 20th century American setting, I'm getting Stephen King vibes, which is not my favorite thing. So I'm a bit lukewarm on this so far, though it is also kind of intriguing"
"DasGerm
It's giving me American Gods vibes, which is a good thing. It also reminds me a little bit of The Breakfast Club, but that may just be the main character's ""wardrobe"" and some of the personalities represented."
ADDENDUMS
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