★★★☆☆ Fantasy: Best of 2002 edited by Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber with Ursula Le Guin, Robert Sheckley, and Brian Stableford on the title too (Published in 2003, wooooo) This “book” took me an unusually long time to finish. Not because it was boring, but because I made myself take out library books and I suppose library books should always take precedence. The issue with anthologies is that either they’re boring, or they’re not boring and you have a little reading hangover at the end of each story.

Dune by Frank Herbert (1965) ★★★★★ The book’s edges are sprayed a lovely shade of spice blue. My photo does it no justice. There’s spoilers, but if you are worried about spoilers on a sixty year old book, honestly that’s on you. I guess this is a five star book because why not? Perhaps I too am caught up in the mythos of the Kwisatz Haderach, Muad’Dib, Lisan al Gaib, Usul, whatever.

The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of The Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One - By George R. R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia, Jr., and Linda Antonsson ★★★★☆ I used to be an ASOIAF fan. I’ve read the main series three, maybe four times. I’ve read Dunk and Egg, Fire & Blood, The World of Ice & Fire, and the first three volumes of the A Game of Thrones graphic novel.

★★★☆☆ State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (2021) This book reminded me of The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder in both good and bad ways. Antique Hunter’s Guide was like 2.5 stars rounded up, whereas this one is 3.5 stars rounded down. It has been loosely on my to-read list for a while as “that thriller co-written by Hillary Clinton.” Why? Because I read The President Is Missing a while ago and also this post https://theconversation.

★★☆☆☆ The Art of War: Complete Texts and Commentaries by Sun Tzu, Translated by Thomas Cleary I suffered considerably while reading this 457 page book. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it more than I did. The introduction alone was forty pages. Well, no. The introduction of the first book. You can understand, then, that I was eager for the teachings of Sun Tzu Himself, and not Boring Old Translator Thomas. Nooo. I was soon wishing for more of the distinguished hexalingual scholar Mr.

Scientific American MIND The Psychology of SUCCESS: It’s not what you learn but how you learn ★☆☆☆☆ I got this from Value Village for $1.79. It was surrounded by a plethora of magazines about the British royal family. What were the circumstances that led to them being donated? Death in the family? Loss of interest? Bankruptcy..? Is there a specific magazine that covers the British royal family and only the British royal family?

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012) ★★★★☆ You know this book. You know the cool girl monologue. Did you know it only happens halfway into the book, on Page 222, not even at the beginning of the chapter? I didn’t know that. It gets the 4th star mostly for being aggressively readable. Is that enough of a reason? I wasn’t wowed by the writing, because I had sky-high expectations going in + knew the general idea of the plot.

★★★☆☆ Three Complete Novels by Michael Crichton: The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, The Great Train Robbery (1969, 1972, 1975, and 1994 for the three-book collection) Why does this guy’s name get to be bolded? Because it makes up a full 50% of the cover. They really wanted us to know that he’s the Bestselling Author of Jurassic Park, except I still missed it, because a single Value Village has ten thousand books and I only have so much time before the Outside reverts to a terrible place.

★★★☆☆ Cooks, Clowns and Cowboys: 101 Skills and Experiences to Discover on your Travels (2012) By thirty different authors, which I will not individually name. Once again I have lost my index note. Really, how hard can it be? Just need to stick it in the middle somewhere after finishing the book instead of doing who-knows-what. But it’s not like I had many notes anyway. Can I do a point form this time?

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C. L. Miller (2024) ★★★☆☆ Note the bird silhouette in the O of “to”. Part of why I got the book! Spoilers! Another Winner’s clearance book. This one, though, only had two clearance stickers as opposed to four. I read the Goodreads reviews after finishing the book, but before starting the review. They confirmed my view that it’s just… a meh book. More three star ratings than anything else.