My little black Christmas tree went up yesterday. It’s prelit with white lights but I added green to give it a Type O Negative kind of vibe. 😀
This past week has been very rocky. My coworker tested positive with Covid-19. He feels okay other than getting tired very easily. The rest of us tested negative at this time, but we’re all worried that it’s just the incubation period. We will see what this next week brings.
Onto books!
5 out of 5 stars – I went into this with little expectation given things I had heard and came out on the other end absolutely loving this book. If you don’t like political intrigue, I could see how you would say that this is boring or drawn out. However, if you’re like me and you dig that sort of thing, baby dive on in!
4 out of 5 stars – One of my favorite space opera series. The character building is always so great and the world encompassing those characters is always original. I feel like it may have been overshadowed by Dune but I still had a good time reading it.
Science Fiction unrelated to books:
Mr. C&M and I endulged in HBO’s Lovecraft Country. Other than there being plenty of horror, there was also quite a bit of science fiction. This series is incredibly brutal and gorey for anyone not into that sort of thing. We found it absolutely fascinating.
How was your November? Science fiction related or otherwise.
cupcakesandmachetes 
I hope you guys stay healthy! Can you at least work at home for now?
And Henry would be so proud of your Dune reading, haha!
Omg haha! He is totally who inspired me to finally pick it up. 😛 I’ve been considering sending him a message thanking him for lighting the fire under my butt.
Unfortunately, no I cannot stay home and work. =/
Send him one! I’m sure he loves to hear all Dune-related good news! 😂
Ugh that sucks that you can’t stay home. Take care!!
Hope you continue to stay healthy and covid free my friend, and I really must get around to watching Lovecraft Country, it looks right up my surreal street! 🙂
Thank you! Fingers crossed here.
I think you would like Lovecraft Country!
Looking very festive! Reminds me that I need to start getting on with doing all that.
Hoping you and your co-workers remain healthy. Fingers crossed for you.
I absolutely love the Dune books, glad you enjoyed the first one. Are you planning to read the others? I have been a little obsessed with the trailer for the new film, hopefully it will be as good as it looks, otherwise it’s at least a good trailer for the book!
I hinted, very hard, to my husband that I would love the next book in the series for Christmas so fingers crossed he picked up on that. 😛
I haven’t watched the trailer yet and I should do that soon! I was told by fellow book people to just go ahead and avoid the 1980’s movie version lol.
The First Mate be envious of yer Type O Negative christmas tree. Arrr!
x The Captain
Thanks! I love it. I wish it wasn’t pre-lit with white though so that it could be totally green. Ah well! Close enough. 🙂
Hurray for another fan of Dune! 5stars is good!!!!!! Be aware that the rest of the books aren’t as good and are “quite” different. I enjoyed them, with caveats but they were inline with Herberts type of book, ie, mental, psychological and obsessed with the small detail while ignoring the big stuff that everybody else wants 😀
and the books by Baby Herbert and Anderson are palatable for a once over if you absolutely HAVE to have more Dune. just realize Anderson seems to have done most of the writing and it’s in his usual pedestrian blase manner.
Sorry to hear your coworker got covid. Do you have to take another test in a week or two to confirm you’re clear? Trust that we’ll get another post announcing you’re as clean as the driven snow 😉
That Lovecraft Country sounds enthralling because I have found out that I am big fan of cosmic horror. But the brutal and gore words will probably mean I stay far away. Sometimes it’s hard to be me, hahahahaha 😀
The gore was so much that my boss actual got nauseous so I feel it’s only polite to warn people!
The boss says we’re only retesting if we’re symptomatic which I don’t particularly approve of. I may see about getting tested on my day off just for my peace of mind. I’m over wearing a mask in my own house. =/
I’m excited to see where Dune goes. I’ll give it the valiant effort it clearly deserves! I am currently listening to a podcast interview with Anderson and Baby Herbert which is interesting but I feel like I’m such a noob to the Dune world that some of it is going over my head. I think I heard a pretty major spoiler too but this series is so old, it’s hard to be mad about it lol.
I do thank you. While violence doesn’t bother me, graphic violence and gore do. So thanks 🙂
You were a mask in your own house? I am so sorry!
I do admit that I hate Kevin Anderson’s writing. So nothing I say will be in anyway positive. Obviously not everyone feels the same 😀 For me, I read the Houses of Dune prequel trilogy, the Legends of Dune prequel trilogy and then the Dune 7 sequel duology. I’m pretty sure I read some more but it was pretty scattered and I simply didn’t care any more by that time. But if you make it through the rest of the Dune Chronicles by Herbert himself, then you can think about those. But don’t read anything by Herbert&Anderson until you’ve at least finished up the Chronicles by Herbert.
Spoilers are definitely hard to avoid for this series, what with it being so famous AND it ending on a cliffhanger because of the author’s death.
If there is any chance I can avoid spreading it to my husband if I have it, I’ll do it. Doesn’t make it any less annoying though. I’m pretty much only not wearing a mask while I’m sleeping. D:
I think that is the route I will take. Read all the original author’s content and then reevaluate when I’m done. 🙂
Ahh, he’s in one of the “vulnerable” groups then I take it.
Kind of. We never got firm answers on what happened with him last year so now we’re just very careful. No use risking that whole fiasco again if we can do our best to avoid it in the first place. It was not fun. So I don’t know if he would be considered vulnerable by other people’s standards but we’re just not playing around.
I remember you writing a little bit about that instance, so it’s now wonder.
Great book reviews. I’m long overdue rereading Dune.
Lovecraft Country sounds great- I’ve only heard good things about it from my friend too.
Cheers,
Pete.
I didn’t even realize that it was originally written in 1964 until today. Where have I been?? (Answer is not born yet lol.)
You should give LC a try! 🙂
Really glad to hear that your time with Dune proved to be so good too! I adored it too and I can’t wait for Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming movie, despite the delay! I’m curious about Lovecraft Country though! Ever since the trailer dropped for that one, it had my full attention!
Now that I’ve read Dune, I’m looking forward to the movie even more. 🙂
Oh no, I hope everything goes okay and you don’t get Covid from your coworker.
Your tree looks lovely!
Thanks! I hope to stay Covid free! :3
You ever see the movie Trolls? There’s that scene where we go to Bergen Town and the bergens are singing along with “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz. One bergen is laying in his own grave, using a spade to fill in the dirt on top of himself. That is definitely a November vibe.
Lmao I have not seen that movie but that’s quite the picture you just painted.
Here is the scene 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq0Gl4L6LJ0
I can’t wait to watch more of Lovecraft Country. The few episodes we watched were sooo good! ❤
I forgot to ask you if you’d finished this last night. :3
Nope, not yet! 🙂 We’re going to get HBO Max and Disney + when we’re both on Winter Break from work so we can binge-watch all the things lol
Ugh, I hope it wasn’t a false negative, but I feel like I’m WAAAAY late with this reply (I’m so behind). I need to watch Lovecraft Country, but I need to be emotionally prepared lol. Have you seen The Boys? Have we talked about that? I’m old and my memory is shit :p
Haha, I have seen The Boys and I do believe we talked about it. I’m also old and my memory is going. 😛 I never did get sick after testing negative. 🙂
My memory is shit LOL. We DID talk about it now that I think about it. It’s so a show you’d watch so I knew you’d have seen it. Whew, I’m glad!