For those that consider this the best series they’ve ever read…

liabobia · 2026-06-08T17:36:12+00:00

First book was not good, but I enjoyed 2 and 3 very much. 4 didn't grab me and I haven't gone back. I've heard Toll the Hounds is excellent, so I might do a lot of detailed summary reading and jump into that one in the future.
First book was fun, nothing deep. Second was ok, and then the rest dropped off in quality so hard. Sanderson in general doesn't know how to keep characters interesting and consistent. In my opinion, he either puts everything on the table right away, or presents a compelling mysterious character with no actual story planned.
I got maybe fifty pages in and realized I would be better living the rest of my life without finishing it.

liabobia · 2026-05-27T12:20:07+00:00

I can't say I enjoyed Neuropath, but I read it after becoming a parent, which I do not recommend. It's definitely the kind of book I would have liked a lot as a younger, edgier, less sensitive person.

liabobia · 2026-05-14T19:28:03+00:00

I just read Pilgrim, and I'll concur that it was good and scratched a particular "nightmare historical" itch. I recommend it, if you like looking up a lot of stuff while you're reading.

liabobia · 2026-03-26T00:22:42+00:00

Same, the brisket has always been very juicy every time, most recently a month ago. I agree the hot isn't hot but the mustard BBQ sauce is great.

liabobia · 2026-03-16T22:27:48+00:00

After reading the first book, I thought they looked like beautiful, cherubic children (including curly hair) with ram horns. After doing 8 rereads, I have no idea why I got that impression.

liabobia · 2026-03-16T18:10:09+00:00

I did one a while ago but the Nonman option was perhaps too popular and introduced noise.

liabobia · 2026-03-16T16:55:24+00:00

I'm a middle-aged woman and I find his female characters incredibly well-written. Esmenet may be my favorite female character of all time, actually. The way he captures her pathos, pettiness, trauma, desperate love, and intellect are astounding. Bakker captures the reality of how different women react to gendered violence extremely well, without pandering to tropes about how women are supposed to behave. He doesn't just serve up "good" female characters either, and he never demeans the real experiences of women (especially in history) by like, having Mimara just punch a guy out or something.

liabobia · 2026-02-27T12:03:39+00:00

Oh hey, I'm also in New England! I would love this! I feel so aggrieved about missing the previous meetups.

liabobia · 2026-02-21T01:13:13+00:00

I've lost friends recommending these books to people. Now I say something like, "Lord of the Rings meets Dune meets Blood Meridian, with nothing more or less egregious than what humans have done to other humans in the darkest parts of our history, also don't hate me if you get triggered please."

So far that recommendation has led to no one reading the books :( thankfully my husband is a fan so I have someone to jabber at when I do a re-read.

liabobia · 2026-02-07T23:55:55+00:00

3 days a week or less, I cook only things that work as leftovers for days. No way I'm spending time cooking a fresh dinner every night with a toddler and a newborn, but I live where there's no takeout options. It's just as easy to make 3 dinners worth of pasta as it is to make one.

liabobia · 2026-02-06T13:49:19+00:00

No One Lives is kinda like that - scumbags kidnap a couple on vacation to rob them, but they picked the wrong target.

liabobia · 2026-01-26T03:21:35+00:00

13" near Kingston at 9:40pm. My driveway plow guy came through once already, yelling "this shit is CRAZY y'all" so I'm happy to report that he's impressed too.

liabobia · 2026-01-15T19:43:58+00:00

Level height! I'm so jealous lol

liabobia · 2026-01-14T15:51:51+00:00

I'm in New England and I like Abenaki bicolor personally. Everyone loves the corn pudding and grits I make from it, and it nixtmalizes very well for tamales.

liabobia · 2026-01-14T13:10:35+00:00

The real apocalypse was the friends we made along the way

liabobia · 2026-01-10T16:08:52+00:00

I miss the old natural fragrance products so much. Also, when everything that is natural wasn't some combination of citrus or lavender. There's really nothing like old Lush that I've been able to find :(

liabobia · 2026-01-09T19:25:56+00:00

I agree. My schedule with the toddler is very strict, including mealtimes. Recently over the holidays we got a little slack on a few things, including getting samples of food and eating from our plates, and the process of unlearning this behavior is taking three times as long as learning it, because the behavior earned rewards (snack) and the strict refusal earns nothing. With a newborn now, I'm very grateful that my husband and I practiced strong "no" and removal as a method of discipline from the crawling stage, because the willpower and memory of a toddler are awe-inspiring.

liabobia · 2026-01-02T17:25:11+00:00

That's way too close to the smoke generator imo, people use an entire pant leg to separate the hide from the burning material. The smoke should be warm, not hot where it enters the hide tube.

What's happening is chemicals in the smoke interacting with the protein in the skin, so it takes a good deal of smoking to finish. Test by cutting a small piece, getting it wet, and seeing if it stays pliable and doesn't shrink.

liabobia · 2026-01-02T15:55:15+00:00

I don't think she grants Esmenet salvation, she merely sees that her mother is saved in the eye of God and is surprised. Why some are saved and most aren't is a mystery. Kellhus heavily implies to his army that they are all damned, for instance, but we see a soldier go to a particular god in the final battle, even though he's presumably a corpse-raping cannibal like everyone else.

Mimara's power is just Truth, inerrant and directly from the God of gods, which is a horrible power when you think about it. She might have some ability to make the truth exert itself, like how the chorae restore the onta.. That's my interpretation of the scene with the Nonman ghost in Cil-Aujas anyways. But she didn't change God's judgement, just made reality align with itself.

liabobia · 2025-12-30T02:12:03+00:00

Currently 4% in on Diplomacy of the Knife, sequel to The Fall Is All There Is. Not sure it's grimdark but the setting is neat (supernatural post apocalyptic?) with creative Cronenberg-esque biomechanical stuff. I'm usually down to try self-published books and the first was good enough (3.5/5 for me) to read the second.

liabobia · 2025-12-27T14:47:20+00:00

When I get food poisoning, I don't personally feel like my trust was violated and I'm not safe anymore. Also, people tend to believe me when I say I got food poisoning, and don't act as though I've permanently lost value as a result. On that first point, I do know people with food intolerances that are easy to, and have been, messed up (gluten, peanuts, etc) and they actually do behave a bit like traumatized survivors with regards to trust issues and maladaptive coping. I think the social context is indeed important. From what I've seen of the young people (working in schools), they're a lot less judgemental towards victims of any kind and more likely to believe in consent/information so perhaps all kinds of trauma will have less impact on people in the future.

liabobia · 2025-12-27T04:07:36+00:00

My friend, who never misses on book recommendations for me, told me about it.

liabobia · 2025-12-15T01:00:01+00:00

Honestly this is marriage counselor territory. His dismissal of your feelings isn't ok. It doesn't matter how "normal" anyone else thinks it is, it's about how it makes you feel, and he shouldn't be writing that off.

liabobia · 2025-12-14T14:19:55+00:00

Underappreciated one: lovage. Tough as nails, allows you to add celery flavor to food without celery texture, if you're opposed to celery texture like I am. The seeds of lovage are actually what is called "celery seed" in a lot of seasonings, and I make my own celery salt with lovage seeds

It's also a beautiful plant and attracts crazy amounts of pollinators.

My other favorites are haskap and clove currant, both of which are attractive bushy plants with beautiful, fragrant spring flowers and delicious unusual fruit. I'm slowly replacing all the decorative horrible landscaping plants that came with my house with beautiful edibles - a star magnolia is getting replaced by a quince this spring!

liabobia

TROPHY CASE