Back in October I went to BBQ and was shocked to see something moving. When I opened the grill all the way, I saw:

Mouse living on my Weber Spirit

Somehow, even with the lid closed and the cover on, the mouse had ripped off bits of my charcoal bag to climb into here and make a nest.

Mouse and fuzzies in my BBQ

An Election by John Scalzi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fun little short story about an election in a very diverse district. I kind of want to see more of this world which I think is the mark of a good short story.

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You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing by John Scalzi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you are an aspiring writer, Scalzi tells it like it is and gives you a good feeling for what it might be like to be a modern writer. No writing tips here - that’s for other types of books. This one is about being a writer and making a living.

White Sand, Volume 1 by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s very odd reading a Sanderson comic rather than a prose book. So much of what’s great in his books involves the background information and the inner monologues of the characters. That said, it is neat to see a visual representation of his world. There are some setups here that seem easy, but that’s usually not Sanderson’s way. Then again, this was one of his first stories. His intro mentions being inspired by Dune and it’s not hard to see where that fits in with the story thus far. It’ll be interesting to see how this fits in with the rest of the Cosmere. Onto volume 2.

Neon Noir: A Delilah Street Paranormal Investigator Anthology by Carole Nelson Douglas

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book might be for you. It was most assuredly not for me. The world was OK, but three things kept me from enjoying it:

- The reveals or answers to the cases seemed to come out of left field (compare with Sanderson where a reveal or twist makes you realize all the hints that were dropped all along)

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to start off by thanking Tor.com for being DRM-free. It’s great to see a major publisher doing this.

With that out of the way, this was a massive story. It’s quite a different pace from everything I’ve read so far (Elantris and related stories, Warbreaker, Mistborn Era 1 and its Ars Arcanum stories). Mistborn, the previous longest story I’d read, was structured more like a traditional trilogy. The first book was satisfying on its own. The second one was mostly setup and the third one was the climax. With The Stormlight Archive being a 10 book series made up of two five-story arcs, this book was almost entirely setup. That’s not to say there wasn’t character growth, because otherwise it would have been a poor and boring story. Dalinar and Kaladin have quite a bit of growth. Syl surprised me although she’s still a bit to much mystery. Shallan and Szeth have fascinating storylines with insane reveals near the end. All the interludes are full of great characters. But in terms of the story, not too much happens - this is what kept it from being a 5 star book to me.

The Complete Cook’s Country Magazine 2017 by America’s Test Kitchen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Halfway through 2017 the magazine underwent a visual revamp to modernize the look. I think it works fairly well. What I continue to enjoy about Cook’s Country is the back half which is both educational and contains tailored sections - a recipe for 2, a one pan recipe, slow cooker, etc.

In September I tried out four new recipes. The grilled breakfast quesadillas were surprisingly great. An egg is cracked into a ring of cheese and topped with grilled bacon and cilantro. The cauliflower gratin was WAY too rich for just Danielle and I to finish it. But I could see it working well for a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. The carnitas were a great indoor version. Finally, for the first time I grilled a full, in tact fish. My father-in-law had given me some sea bass he caught and I filled it with aromatics and then covered it in more herbs and aromatics after grilling. It was very, very good.

Mega Man 3 by Salvatore Pane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As usual for this series, it’s a combination of a history of the game covered and an autobiography of author. Although I never played Megaman 3 (or played very little of it) I did own Megaman 2 and so it was great that the author touched on the entire series and the spinoffs.

A nice hit of nostalgia from another gamer who grew up in the NES era.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When it comes to my experience of this book, there are a few things that marred my enjoyment. When I first heard of it and didn’t know all the info about it I did by the time I actually read it, it sounded interesting and I added it to my To-read pile. Problem is, if I bought every book that caught my attention, I’d be broke. So things languish on there there for years. Meanwhile, I buy book bundles from Humble Bundle or Story Bundle (and not all of those or I’d be broke, too) because if they have authors or a theme I’m really interested in, it’s usually about a dollar a book. Both of these combined to make me enjoy this book less. On the former, everyone I know (mostly family) who’d read the book made a big deal about how it was definitely a book for me since it has video games and lots of 80s references. So a bit of over-selling there. Then, from the latter, I ended up with Massively Multiplayer in one of the book bundles. It was actually published a year before Ready Player One and, on a basic level, has the exact same plot. It even has the exact same Moral or Lesson at the end of the story. So when I decided to move Ready Player One to the top of my queue before the movies meant that everyone (not just book readers) would know the plot and it’d be too hard to keep from spoilers, I ended up reading an over-hyped book with a plot that was already stale.