March/April 2020 Reading

• 4/30/2020: Food of the Gods by Cassandra Khaw - rolls up all four Rupert Wong books (the cannibal chef).  
• 4/29/2020: Food of the Gods by Cassandra Khaw - rolls up all four Rupert Wong books (the cannibal chef).  
• 4/28/2020: (actually read 5/7, playing a little catch up).  "Ahmaud Arbery Should Be Alive"  by Jamil Smith.  "Convicting his killers is the start. But the family of this modern lynching victim can’t have justice in a country with laws that protect white people who kill black people."
  • “Nothing that our legal system can do outpaces the efficiency of racism when it comes to delivering consequences.”
  • “Open-carry must be abolished. Stand-your-ground has to go. State codes that allow citizens to arrest people? Those are golden tickets for lynchings. They should be relics of an America that should embarrass us.”
• 4/27/2020: "How to prepare for big data projects: 6 key elements of a successful strategy" - Techrepublic. 
• A thorough understanding of present and future business questions the data is expected to yield answers for. 
• Data centralization (...maybe)
• ID data sources to feed central repository
• ID future data sources
• Defined data prep methodology – extract, transformed, loaded
• Effective data prep tools
• 4/26/2020: "On the Day You Spend Forever" by Adam R. Shannon.  The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/25/2020: "Godmeat" by Maritn Cahill.  The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/24/2020: "Skinned" by Lesley Nneka Arimah.  The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/23/2020: "Dead Air" by Nino Cipri. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/22/2020: "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" by Daryl Gregory. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/21/2020: "What Gentle Women Dare" by Kelly Robson The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/20/2020: "STET" by Sarah Gailey: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• My least favorite so far....I get the angle around autonomous cars and the value of life, but didn't like it.
• 4/19/2020: "Dead Lovers on Each Blade, Hung" by Usamn Malik: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Extremely Cthulhuesque.  With snakes.

• 4/18/2020: "When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis" by Annalee Newitz: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Maybe my favorite so far...clever story about a small AI left on its own who bonds with a human and crows. Really embraces the centaur aspect of AI beyond just the human.
• 4/17/2020: "The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by P. Djeli Clark: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/16/2020: THEMATIC THREAD: RELIGION IN HORROR - Richard had a bit on The Wicker Man.  Check out  Blood on Satan's Claw and Witchfinder General.  Should be able to catch them on Shudder.
• 4/15/2020: "The Kite Maker" by Brenda Peynado: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• A bit District 9.
• 4/14/2020: " Sister Rosetta Thorpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good" by LaShawn M. Wanak: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Weird, hisorical, and really, really good.
• 4/13/2020: "Through the Flash" by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Reminded me a LOT of the Heaven, Inc. story I wrote 20 years ago.
• 4/12/2020: "Variations on a Theme from Turandot" by Ada Hoffman: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/11/2020: "Hard Mary" by Sofia Samatar: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Interesting dig into what makes an AI human....useful....part of a community.
• 4/10/2020: "Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women" by Theodore McCombs: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Particularly original
• 4/9/2020: "Poor Unfortunate Fools" by Silvia Park : The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• Very little mermaid driven with a touch of The Newts.
• 4/8/2020: "The Storyteller's Replacement" by N.K. Jemisin: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/7/2020: "What Everyone Knows" by Seanan McGuire: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor 
• 4/6/2020: "Pitcher Plant" by Adam-Troy Casto: The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (The Best American Series ®) - Carmen Maria Machado, Editor
• 4/5/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Methods and Functions (2 hours and 2 minutes)
• 4/4/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Methods and Functions (2 hours and 2 minutes)
• 4/3/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Methods and Functions (2 hours and 2 minutes)
• 4/2/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Methods and Functions (2 hours and 2 minutes)
• 4/1/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Statements (1 hour 15 minutes)
• 3/31/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Statements (1 hour 15 minutes)
• 3/30/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Comparison Operators (9 minutes)
• 3/29/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Object and Data Structure Basics (2 hours 2 minutes)
• 3/28/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Object and Data Structure Basics (2 hours 2 minutes)

• 3/27/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Object and Data Structure Basics (2 hours 2 minutes)
• 3/26/2020:  Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Object and Data Structure Basics (2 hours 2 minutes)
• 3/25/2020: Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Python Setup (40 minutes)
• 3/24/2020: Udemy.  Complete Python Bootcamp: Go from Zero to Hero in Python 3 - Course Overview (15 minutes)
• 3/23/2020: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning) - enjoyable  A bit on the YA side with a weird ending, but the reading of it was enjoyable.  A bit of a scooby doo vibe (which they reference in the book).
• 3/22/2020: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning)
• 3/21/2020: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning)
• 3/20/2020: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning)

• 3/19/2020: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning)
• 3/18/2020: The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Good Mythical Morning)
• 3/17/2020: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (book 3 of the Jean LeFlambeur series) - loved this series.  Recommended by Dave.  The science fiction is deep hard scifi, almost to the extent you have to reread parts of it to understand what you just read.  But overall I loved it - very different.
• 3/16/2020: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (book 3 of the Jean LeFlambeur series)
• 3/15/2020: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (book 3 of the Jean LeFlambeur series)
• 3/14/2020: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (book 3 of the Jean LeFlambeur series)
• 3/13/2020: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (book 3 of the Jean LeFlambeur series)
• 3/12/2020: The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (book 3 of the Jean LeFlambeur series)
• 3/11/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey - my apologies to Mr. Tobey but I hated it.  I read the whole thing, but the self interest and how it moved situationally for characters made me sort of dislike every single one of them.  And the AI didn't seem very smart or God-ish at all.

• 3/10/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/9/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/8/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/7/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/6/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/5/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/4/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/3/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/2/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey
• 3/1/2020: The God Game by Danny Tobey

Book Meme Part II - Fantasy Category

I didn't think this one through thoroughly.  There's a lot of things I read that are fantasy that I don't usually think of as Fantasy.  Harry Potter.  The Magician King by Grossman (recommended by Larry, loved both books). Illearth Series. Pratchett (I put off reading some of the Discworld books so I always have some to go back to.  It's the reverse of worrying about whether an author will die before he completes a series.  I almost died before I completed what was available of Pratchett).  Bradbury.  And I had to go back and update for Bull, Mieville, and Gaiman, which is inexcusable.  I'm not sure why I don't think of them as fantasy...apparently I have a prejudice where I stereotype fantasy as elves, dwarves, Terry Goodkind, and Tad Williams Green Angel Tower trilogy (see the bottom - you can slot this into never read, even though I pawned it off on Kevin).

The last fantasy book I read was:
Elfstones of Shannara.  Read it out loud to Eryn.  I had some criticisms, but he uses Awesome much less often in the Sword of Shannara.

The fantasy book I am reading right now is: 
Wishsong of Shannara.  Reading it out loud to Eryn.  She's annoyed that one of the characters says "For Cat's Sake" so often.  Not nearly as good as Frack! or the Firefly swear words:

The next fantasy book I will read is: 
Maybe I'll just celebrate being done with 1150 pages of the Shannara trilogy.  Once again, I don't have anything queued up.  I'm moving to Law 101 and PMP studying.  A bit of nonfiction.  Wait..that's a lie.  I'm going to finish reading Felix Palma's Map of the Sky.  I ordered it from the library yesterday.  Could be construed as science fiction, but it's more fantasy than scifi in my opinion.

I also have a copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things sitting on the table that I checked out yesterday, although it'll have to wait until after PMP.  And I'm way past due for a Jasper Fforde book and a Discworld book.

The last fantasy book I didn’t finish was:
Palma's Map of the Sky.

I didn’t finish it because:
Library requested it back, and I've been reading it slowly, partially because I had to finish The Map of Time before I started it.

The last fantasy I recommended to a friend was:
The Rook - recommended it to Kevin.

The last fantasy book someone recommended to me was: (Did you enjoy it?)
Larry recommended The Leviathan Trilogy, which is steampunk, which I categorize as fantasy.  I liked it enough that Eryn and I read it together again for evening reading time.  NPR recommended Robopocalypse: A Novel, which is likely classified as scifi, but feels like out and out fantasy or a horror-related zombie riff to me.  NPR is dumb.  It sucked.  Hard. Kevin said that whole Hunger Games thing was good when he saw me with the book in St. Peter.  Once again, border line between scifi and fantasy.  I didn't enjoy it - I'm still sort of mad I read it from a literary perspective, although from a modern cultural perspective, at least I have something to complain about when someone tells me how great it is.

My favorite fantasy novel is:
I came back to this question!  I do have an absolute favorite, War for the Oaks by Emma Bull.  Magic Realism in Prince's Minnesota.  Ananasi Boys and American Gods - e.g. anything by Gaiman.  And ALMOST anything by China Mieville.  The Scar, Perdido Street Station, and Iron Council, but NOT Kraken.

[Old Answer: Lord of the Rings.  It's got historical/english professor undertones...or overtones.  And although I'm older now and I know it's not as good as I remember at the time, the Song of Albion trilogy by Stephen Lawhead was my favorite for a long time.]

An underrated fantasy author is:
I'd rather state I think George R. R. Martin and Robert Jordon are overrated, and there's almost nothing I'd read in top 20 authors on the Amazon fantasy list.

I think Emma Bull has always been underrated.  She's wonderful.  That whole circle of authors she's involved with (Gaiman, Shetterly, et al) is excellent.

My favorite sub-genre of fantasy is:
If I use this list, probably Alternate World followed by Arthurian followed by Juvenile.

Should add two questions...don't ever read... and favorite fantasy film:
Per above, stay away from that damn Tad Williams trilogy.  It's boring, and a LOT of boring.  As for movies, Princess Bride and Spirited Away (anyone ever say anything different unless they're LoTR uber fans?) are at the top of my list.  I don't think Grave of the Fireflies is fantasy, or I'd rank it higher than either.  Are superhero movies fantasy movies?  This all gets very grey...