Re-read #TerryPratchett Feet Of Clay.

I've decided, if I'm asked which novel to start reading the #discworld series, Feet Of Clay will be my recommendation.
It's early enough that it still has a paragraph explaining the discworld cosmology, but mature enough to expound on Pratchett's themes of acceptance for all people in the big city, regardless of their appearance and origins.

Oh, and this is the one where Cheri Littlebottom transitions from He to She. Pratchett would 100% support trans rights today.

I'm not counting this towards my yearly book count; it's always a delight to re-read Pratchett.

#bookstodon #trans

Books 26 and 27,
Redemption Point and Gone By Midnight, both by Candice Fox.

Set in hot humid crocodile country, there's two unusual private detectives, both outcasts.
One was falsely accused as a paedophile, but mud still sticks. The other was convicted of murder as a teenager.

I got both books from the library and devoured them.

Good series. Recommended Aussie Noir.

Book 25 for the year.
Terry Pratchett. A life With Footnotes, the official biography, by Rob Wilkins.

"Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive." John Lloyd.

Well written.
I had to break to re-read Night Watch.

And I hadn't known that it took decades for him to be recognised in the USA.

Gone too soon.

Also, trivia: Moist Von Lipwig was going to be called Moist Von Hedwig, after Hedwig And The Angry Inch, but after a certain novel used the name Hedwig for a character, he had to change it to Lipwig.

Book 24 for the year.

The Tilt.
Chris Hammer.

OMG I love this writer.

The landscape is always part of his stories.
You are right there, hearing the birds, seeing the wallabies, smelling the forest, experiencing the thunderstorms and the heatwaves.

This novel is set in 1943, 1973, and the present.
It's a love story, a murder mystery, and a family saga, with an ending as happy as possible, given that they've solved a long standing cold case.

You can tell how much I like a book by the number of hashtags I use, and if I photograph the cover.

#book #bookstodon #auslit
#TheTilt #ChrisHammer

Book 20 of 2023.

Octavia Butler, Kindred.

Dana is happily living in 1976, with her new husband in their new home, when she feels dizzy and blacks out, waking up next to a river where a young boy is drowning.
She saves his life, then discovers it is 160 years earlier. The boy is her great-great-grandfather, son of a slave owner. And just so we're clear, Dana is black.

This novel was written five decades ago but feels fresh.

This is a brilliant novel.

#bookstodon

My book 11 of 2023.

Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere.

I missed this when it came out.
I'd read Good Omens back then, and have read American Gods, but I can see I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Book 10 for 2023.

Garry Disher creates a one-police officer small Australian town, with an unexpectedly large murder rate. Hirsch is one of my favourite detectives.
Day's End is very clearly set during covid, with masks, vaccinations, and sovereign citizens occupying people's minds, along with cyberbullying and meth users.

I have read several of Disher's novels, I highly recommend the Bitter Wash Road series.
#bookstodon

Book 7 for 2023. An easily read popular one.
Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed.

Good plot.
I enjoy the conversations.

Just a nice little bit of assassination fiction.

I'd cast Jamie Lee Curtis in the movie.

Deanna Raybourn, Killers Of A Certain Age.

Movie.

I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Stopped half way through to search the internet for clues about why people loved this random noisy martial arts movie.

Decided to give it 15 more minutes.

Suddenly, it's not random, the relationships are perfect, I got the jokes, and it's beautiful.