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It wasn't really terrible, but it wasn't good enough to even really speculatively recommend. The writing is difficult, but not bad. Much of the book is just a slog of not that important nothingness happening (which I have had other books where not much really happens, but they are enjoyable because the writing itself is enjoyable). The writing might not be the worst I've seen in terms of weird dropping of strange language that I'll do myself, when I'm drafting something (or just not wanting to spend the time to find the right word despite not likely going back to it).

I may continue but if the following two books are as "productive" I would say it should have been a novel about 300 pages for the combined stories.

This was a tough slog... I can't recommend it. I did a multi-post at @JigmeDatse@social.jigmedatse.com social.jigmedatse.com/@jigmedatse/112154559785276051 I just wanted to take this time to point to it. I'll kind of do it wherever it ends up that my attention falls... There are spoilers in that review.

I think I watched the film not that long ago... Want to read the book.

As with most collections from a variety of authors, the works can tend to vary over a fair range. The topics here are mostly all pretty good. Sadly one author, I think is mostly there because she's "Famous Canadian Female Author." It mostly doesn't apply to anyone else, or at least anyone not close to exactly that.

That perception may well be because I don't much like her writing, and I'm often running into a vague, "I don't think this is a good person," type feeling as well.

Ah well. It was one of ~20 pieces. So you know, not a big deal, just it was one piece that took 4 stabs at to get through, while most were 1 or maybe 2 tries, and only 2 tries, because I was falling asleep.

This is a book that has been laying about and I've not really wanted to read it, because it kind of felt that it would be terrible toxic positivity. It is kind of toxic positivity, but it's not as bad as I expected it to be.

I fully expected it to be of the sort which gave a strong vibe of, "if you've got bad stuff in your life, it's because you're not being positive enough." It was more of the type of, "feel good, be happy" type toxic positivity.

There were parts that I had problems with. It tends towards religious/spiritual explanations, leaning quite strongly on Abrahamic religions (Jewish, Christian primarily, as the author is Jewish, but some Buddhist (not well stated) as well).

This was... Rather disappointing. I know that at some point I really wanted to read a whole lot of these books, so maybe an earlier book in the series was more engaging. This is called a "mystery" on the cover, and while crimes happen, I usually consider mystery to be somewhat about the solving of said mystery. For the most part the characters which are quite actively in the story, are not contributing much to the solving, they are the "subject" of the crimes involved, not committing them, and not solving them. Don't really know that I'd even consider it "crime fiction" that much. Still, there were some powerful bits in it. I'd just go with something earlier in the series, and maybe having done that work up to this one.

I've read this before, but it's worth a re-read

Dates approximate... This was a slog to get through, at least until I got it into the sauna where I trap myself with the current book for however long I'm in the sauna.

I have very mixed feelings about this. There are some really sound points made, and there's some really terrible stuff here as well. I'm not sure what more to say without providing "spoilers". I read the previous volume, and felt similarly. I'm not sure if there's any subsequent volumes, when I last looked there wasn't.

I'm reasonably sure that I've read this before. I can't say what I make of it. It's OK, it is dark in parts, really weird in other parts. It's hard to figure out if it's supposed to be a sense of what is going on or not.

This was... Interesting story telling, but not overly great. There also were parts that just felt right off. It was a decent read in the end. It was well enough written to be worth reading for that aspect.

It's getting to be that time of year again. So here is a casual reminder to you all to not support the Salvation Army. They are a bigoted outfit that will think nothing of acting prejudiced against our LGBT brothers and sisters and anyone else to whom those labels do not apply.

This appears to be an edition which is an earlier draft. The main concept is there, but there are issues which some parts are clearly missing details, and other parts are just a little unclear. It gives a good view and is somewhat shorter than the released version. It is freely available, and is meant to be. I'm not sure if the HTML or Markdown versions might be more complete.

I honestly really loved the system, and hope to have a look at the full version shortly.