I have a limited experience when it comes to the mob genre. My main touchstone is about 2 Yakuza Games. Games I wanted to enjoy because of the wacky side quest that can be found the series. Though the slow serious pace of the main story always gave me a whiplash to between the two experiences. I did enjoy the slow build up with all these small moments that build up to the climax of the games, though sometimes it just felt it drag on for too long. I did not have that with Jade City.
The story was well pace with tense moments of the main family having to deal with the politics of their city and the clan warfare. They stood out in their own ways, and I came to care about them for when they get into dangerous situations. The action had me having clear pictures of martial arts enhance by the magical Jade they wore.
The book does end in a way that concludes this chapter of the family’s life, and in way to show that there more challenges they have to face. I am curious to see what happens next. Any issues I had was with me and how I find it political intrigue books a bit difficult.
‘”Off the Beaten Path: A Stone’s Throw Mystery” by Eloise Corvo is a mystery novel that I wish I liked more. It gives a simple mystery: who killed a tourist and dropped his body in the state park? Our hero is the local park ranger, Maudy Lorso, who’s asked to assist as a consultant with police to solve the case. She accepts as the sooner it’s solved the sooner the park can be open for their busy season or she might be out of a job. I liked Maudy and found her an interesting character who’s dealing with relationship trauma and workplace stress. The overall reading was okay, I found Eloise Corvo’s prose simple and easy, it just never fully hooked me. My biggest problem were some of the actions of the side character making them feel like they were in a cheesy Hallmark movie or just idiot. There was also a contrivance to why the main character confronted the killer alone that made me scratch my head at the incompetence and irresponsibility to a specific character. The epilogue felt, a bit excessive? it sets up for a larger narrative and a sequel in a way that didn’t feel satisfying. it was an fine bumpy journey that missed it’s landing.
Below are a few quick thoughts on the books I’ve read throughout May
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
This was going to be my big book for the year after finishing The Power Broker by Robert Caro last year. It was significantly easier to read through The Bright Sword. However, it was still a slow burn of the book. It takes it’s time to setup the characters, the setting and the history of this Arthurian world it goes through. By the end, I came to love and care about the characters. Reading constantly to see all their stories to the end and to find out exactly what happen to Camelot after Arthur passed. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I sometimes found myself really fighting just to pick it up, but when I did pick it up, I was hooked.
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
Oh god, I still do not know if I like this series or not. Like I enjoyed the idea of it, and there is something funny about this story being about Lovecraftian strangeness with just middle-management bureaucracy with writing which feels like one of the more enjoyable Standard of Operation Procedures workbook. I think I enjoy the main character. I look over my CAWPILE notes and everything is around the 4-6 range. I think I’ll pick up the next book. But it’s not going to the top of my To Be Read list.
An Informal Guide to Workwear: Form, Function, and Fashion by A.W. Sylvester
Getting into my 30’s, there was something in my head that clicked and wanted me to work on my appearance, how I wear clothes, and what do I want to say with my outfit. This book came up from Putthison.com’s gift guide. It is no way a guide to fashion but helped me understand some of the history of clothes and its view in the blue-collar industry. I very much enjoyed the art in the book and love the blue outer cover. This would be one of my coffee table books. It easy to pick up and just read a few sections while waiting.
Cold Clay by Juneau Black
Out of all the books in May, this was the one that caught my attention the most. Juneau Black’s writing works great for me, and I enjoy the pacing of this mystery story returning to the town of Shady Hollow. I felt like the character were a bit more alive in this book than the first in the series. The atmosphere was still very charming and quant with that murderous vibe that reminds me of Midsomer Murders or Father Ted. My main critic is the story. Juneau Black tells us not to worry too much about how the animals live together, but a major plot point in the story kind of deals with their animalistic nature. There is something disconnecting about “don’t worry they all live together” and “Yes, this thing happens to me because of that animal’s nature” The mystery was also weaker than the first. It felt obvious and was waiting for the twist that threw the story on its head that made me go “AH how did I miss that?”, thought it was still a fun journey. Finished it in a day as I was that invested
Game Books or misc.
The following books are RPG books; they do not get ratings and while I’ve read them. I would not consider them reviews of the games or their mechanics as I have yet to run them. I would say maybe my quick impressions of varying length
Call of Cthulhu: Campfire Tales
One of my best friends loves to play as teens and kids in TTRPGs with cool settings, and I do like Call of Cthulhu. So, when I saw the game was available on Studio 2 publishing, I bought it immediately. I found the adventures fun with some weak set-ups and the campaign framework to be okay. I’m excited to try to bring it to the table for a small campaign.
The Laundry Roleplaying Game: Introduction to Applied Occult Computing by David F. Chapman (Game designer), Calum Collins, Christopher Colston, Alister Davison, Michael Duxbury, Warren Frey, Gareth Hanrahan, Elaine Lithgow
Do you hear that dear reader? That was my sigh from far away. Like it’s book series, I’m not sure if I like this or not. This is the Laundry’s RPG introduction book that gives an adventure, a few pre-gen characters, and some lore about the area of London our beloved employees of the Laundry would be dealing with if you wanted to extend the scope of the campaign. The good, I liked the main adventure with some of the extended adventure ideas the book gives for continuing the campaign. The writing felt like the book and sometimes bore me. I think my main trepidation in running this one, is trying to sell it to my players and how much information they would need to know regarding the world of the Laundry. I haven’t done many campaigns that take place in establish license worlds and series, so I may just be overthinking with the idea “How much do they need to know?”. It’s on my to run list but somewhere in the middle.
Pathfinder Adventure Path #55: The Wormwood Mutiny by Daniel Rizea, Robert Lazzaretti, Mikaël Léger, Doug Stambaugh, Richard Pett, Jason Engle, Sean K. Reynolds, Craig J. Spearing, Jesse Benner, Steven D. Russell, Tyler Walpole, F. Wesley Schneider, Daryl Mandryk, Robin D. Laws, Mariusz Gandzel, Emiliano Pretrozzi
I have a buddy who wanted me to run a Pathfinder campaign. A game I do not run with a campaign with books I do not have. But he does and was more than willing to lend me the books to see if I was interested in running it. I took the first one, The Wormwood Mutiny to get an idea of the campaign. Pirate theme with the players trying to become pirate lords and dealing with rival captains. Okay, I typically don’t play the crunchy tactical tabletop RPGs but I’m willing to give it a shot. I came off a bit excited and a bit relieved I read through the whole book first. I loathe how sporadically throughout the book it would tell the GM which additional books would be needed to run the beasts and details on magic items. Another friend told me those details are all online for free by Paizo though I was still kind of annoyed with layout of the book. I have no problem with a book saying “you will need these books to run the game” but please just put it in one place. I’m not completely sold on the campaign, so going to read the next one when I got the time.
Index Card RPG Power Tools: Game Mastery Book by Brandish Gilhelm
There are plenty of advice books for Game Mastery, I’ve talked about one or two here before. This one comes from Runehammer’s Brandish Gilhelm filled with some actionable advice, tables, and a bit of marketing for his other products. There was a video he put out regarding this where he mentions he’s not a salesman, but the passion he has sold me on this book. I picked up and found some good advice along with some reminders I needed to hear. His method to create relationships, think about NPC arcs, and just a reminder to have fun. Since reading I’ve been drawing a scene from sessions I’ve ran or played in. Sure, my drawing might look like crap, but it’s a game we are playing pretend and having fun
Index Card RPG: Realms of the Graves by Brandish Gilhelm
A sandbox adventure/small campaign that could be played with Index Card RPG while giving examples of how the tips and trick in the Game Mastery book can be used. Enjoyed what I read, got a bit confused on few of the mechanics but still excited to try during a break between main campaigns.
Delta Green: Agent’s Handbook by Dennis Detwiller, Christopher Gunning, Greg Stolze, Shane Ivey’
I have heard Delta Green’s campaign Impossible Landscapes was one of the best campaigns in TTRPG landscape, but I never took a proper look at it. When the RPG channel, Quinn Quest’s reviewed Delta Green rules and Impossible Landscapes, that got me to pick up some of the smaller adventures like Owlshead Mountain and PX Poker Night. I enjoyed what I read that I then picked up the Delta Green handbook and Impossible Landscapes. I overall fine the rules fine. Once my current Dragonbane game is done, one of my players will run a Star Wars Campaign, and I’ll be reading Impossible Landscapes getting ready to prep that massive campaign
Black Powder and Brimstone Core book by Benjamin Tobitt
A small RPG that gives me big Dark souls grimdark vibe compatible with the Mork Borg system. I liked what I read, though I think the grim dark art is what sold me to pick up this game. I can see this being one of those OSR games I’ll pick up to run like a small one shot or short campaign especially since of the quick character creation and simple mechanics.
November of 2025 accidentally became my mystery novel month and I found one my favorite new cozy mystery series.
175 words or less, thoughts and feelings that I had after reading the book
I heard about this book series from the Reading Glass podcast. Cozy town with anthromopic animals? Each book can be read as a standalone? Sign me up. I love when a mystery is tied up with a bow, and this was a great first book to the series. It follow the a dedicated reporter, Vera Vixen, trying to get all the facts for the story when a body turns up in the quiet town of Shady Hollow. It’s a charming town brought to life, with a few too many characters. I loved the mystery presented and was trying to solve it throughout the whole book. My guesses were incorrect, but it does feel like I could have solved it. My only qualm on the story, is the final confrontation, as it comes a little too exaggerated for a certain character. I still think it’s an excellent read that I do not want to spoil who-dun-it in anyway.
There is a hopefulness John tries to impart on the viewer along with a small call for us to be more aware.
I have not been this upset or angry while reading a book for a hot minute. Everything is Tuberculosis is a book that explains a bit about the history of the disease throughout time. The viewpoint the world has had on it throughout history, as medicine has changed. Yet somehow this deadly yet curable disease is still active and still killing people to this day. It’s a book that shows the culture, the medicine, the greed, and the social failures that got us to this point. Though it does still offer some hope. It showcases the people trying to help. The one’s who survived it continuing to be use their voice to help spread awareness about tuberculosis. The fears that can arise if we do not take this threat seriously. Maybe my anger stems how Tuberculosis reminds me of the failure we experience with COVID-19, a disease that we continue to deal with in our daily lives, one where we could have possible limited the threat if everyone took it seriously. In a day where we are almost instantly able to communicate with our fellow man, yet lack of care has us regulate COVID-19 to something we all have to just deal with as we carry-on with our daily lives.
Both diseases show the issue of ongoing maintenance that we fail to upkeep. Once a vaccine or a cure was found, we implemented them across as quick as we could. Though that we does not include all of humanity. Just the places that were lucky enough to have easy access to the vaccine, with insurance, nearby pharmacies that could administer the vaccine, with proper equipment to limit the spread. The same can’t be said with those with Tuberculosis.
God bless John trying to find hope here as he wrote the book. The hope isn’t on us as a collective, but it is about people. People that will try to fight for cheaper medication. For people that try to help find better cures and techniques for Tuberculosis. People that want to share their stories to plead and get others into helping. To be share his hope with those are trying their hardest to make a difference.
There is a certain tone to when I read John Green’s writing. A reminder of his podcast of The Anthropocene Reviewed. An informative educational tone that mixes his own voice that brings out the feeling in the book. The feelings he had when learning of Tuberculosis. I have no idea how he comes off as hopeful. When I read. I get a mix emotions or anger and pessimism. If a book can bring out those feelings in me immediately, I view as a great book.
I think i found a new favorite Fantasy? Sci-fi? LiRPG book series. It’s a big recommendation for anyone that is a fan of dungeon and dragons or video games. At least for the first book. I have been told the others books in the series do some interesting changes to the format. Though yeah it it is a book I enjoyed both the concepts explored, the alibeit heavy handed themes about reality show. And the awfulness of a game show trying to have people battle royale through a giant megadungeon. I enjoyed the writing though I could also see that it may not for everyone. There is a certain humor the book has that is my jam and for friends. The book has a guy with no pants constantly arguing with his ex’s magical talking cat while also dealing with the kind of awfulness of being in an audience’s eyesight that could effect your life ala streaming and squid games. Still, i’m picking up the second book in the series to continue Carl and Princess Donut’s adventure in this weird world.
With such a strange funny title, I was curious to see what this book would entail. What I got was a fun romp into an interdimensional world all through the lens of an average guy who is taken into a organizations filled with brilliant scientists. Thankfully he’s not played as the complete moron. He meets others who are just as new as him and they all learn about this world with it’s giant beasts. The fiction works to make everything easy to understand with science fiction technobable that I was able to latch on to easily. I was ingross in the setting and the story. I did have an rough idea of the book antagonist and his plans, as it’s close to real life villains. It was a fun journey. A clear sign that I liked a book is when I close it, and then immediately go to find what else the author has written. This book has me looking up what John Scalzi has also written,
175 words or less, thoughts and feelings that I had after reading the book
My last note in my commonplace book for this book read “probably my least favorite, What happens next?”
Broken Homes is the fourth in the series written by Ben Aaronovitch. Following Peter Grant’s magic adventures in the London,it’s fae inhabitants, and his investigations into a series antagonist, the Faceless Man. I still enjoy the writing and characters that I came to love through previous books. The problems came from the slow burn pace, the lack of a single case to follow direction, and my difficulty in understanding the architecture that becomes a main focal point for this book. I had trouble fully understanding the villain’s plan until the end. It took me several reads for me to understand what was going on. Despite my issues with the book, I want to see more. I’m not letting one book that is difficult to parse stop me.
Pink Post-it tabs stick out of the book, marking 25 different pages to return to; to reference during my revisiting of the book. My commonplace book was now, finally, broken in. 20 pages of notes written with a black roller-ball, quotes and important things in fountain pen, and any books mentioned in pencil. It has been a long time since I’ve dived into a book this way. No book has consumed my time like that, let alone for a fortnight and four days. It’s not a new book, yet I think it’s one of my favorites that I read in 2025.
Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, came at an interesting time in my life. I have been setting timed sessions to sit at my computer at 4 am in the morning to work on a project, any project. Sometimes it’s painting miniatures, sometimes it’s reading, sometimes it’s writing. I have been writing for this blog more often. I’ve enjoyed getting back into writing. I enjoy drifting through the flow of the words exiting from my mind to keys to the page. It’s a river I enjoyed visiting as a kid. I remember entering school competitions in writing. While I never won, I also remember the great English teachers that taught me. Stephen King reminds me of some of them.It helps that he was one for a bit.
The writing gives the feeling of the teacher ,while strict, still wants the best for the students. He speaks in a way that is easy to understand, able to ease complex concepts to an intuitive lesson. This is the teacher that will not help the ones that are lazy or just in class cause they have to. Though if you had trouble understanding the subject (maybe even got the lowest marks), as long as you actually tried and gave a shit, he would help you as much as he can. “If you don’t want to work your ass off, you have no business trying to write…well–settle back into competency and be grateful you have even that much to fall back on.” Harsh words that mix with his harsh teachings.
I find it a hard novel to discuss, mainly due to its structure. The first section is a memoir to show “how a writer was formed” in King’s own words. The section after talks about writing. It’s not a recipe, there’s nothing here that tells you, “Do these steps, and bam, novel!”. It’s like a guidebook. King, throughout the book, breaks down the numerous tools in the writer’s toolbox. The ones that are important such as grammar, vocabulary, and active tense. There are ones that may come and go. Throughout the entire section, there is a constant reminder that the story is what is important. It’s what he views as the most important thing in a novel. Then, it details the fun King finds in writing and the joy it brings him when hitting sections of the story that pull the reader in. Reading this was a joy as it was akin to a friend telling you the thing they are passionate about.
There’s other, smaller sections throughout the book that all deal with writing in some way or form. One of King’s sons talks about how reading stories aloud is an important part of his life; how it immersed him into the worlds in a new way. The other son holds a Q&A with his dad about the process of the two of them writing books together and other random questions (it’s a Q&A transcript. People will ask all sorts of stuff). The foreword talks about an important book which influenced him to omit needless words and a reminder of editors who do “divine work”. I have a friend, which I trust most, editing this.I have to agree: their work is divine.
I care about this post on this small little blog enough that I want to make sure it’s well-written. There is something about Stephen King’s writing in this book that spoke to me. That lit a fire under me to write and read more. I didn’t want to put the book down; it became the one of the two books I tried to make sure I read in the morning. I was taking it with me to take more notes during lunch instead of eating. I am still doing some self reflection, searching for why I write, and this won’t be the last time I come back to this book. It’s going to stay on my shelf where I can see it, and all of its post-it tabs. I’m even keeping the bookmark in it.
The bookmarks I use have a space for notes and just below that, five blank stars waiting for a personal rating. On my blog, I circle around the term of review. I move away from ratings, and limit myself to a word count to help me be concise while getting my point across. This will be my first break from all those limitations.
This book is one of the few on the blog to get a star rating from me.
175 words or less, thoughts and feelings that I had after reading the book
M.R James is one of those writers I heard as an early father of the ghost story genre. Intrigued I picked up a book of his from library, unaware it was roughly his entire collection. The biggest barrier to enjoying the stories is the writing. I found reading it, an intense challenge due to the language difference from his time of writing versus the present. Continuous references to architectural design and Latin language that my US education did not prepare me for. Several times they were the last words that were to enhance the tension. With difficulty trying to parse what was being said, it made it harder to be immerse in it’s atmosphere. Stories had confused me enough that I had to reference Wikipedia to see if I understood what happened. The simpler stories had me immerse; a fun journey into the paranormal ghostly horror. I wish I enjoyed it more.
