More Words About Books – Page 3 – We don't know when to quit

July 3, 2025

Extra Nate: Burn Notice Recap

Wow this is a long one. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear Ben’s soothing voice read this for you? Sure it would. It’ll only cost you $2 It’s Extra Nate. The only blog companion piece to the hottest book-related podcast that had discussed a Burn Notice book on the entire internet! What Even Is Burn Notice? A lot of people...

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July 1, 2025

Extra Nate: What is a Locked Room Mystery

Hello, my name is Nate. Welcome to my original blog post idea. After reading You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego, I got to thinking. What even is a locked room mystery? Because whatever that was, that wasn’t it. Looking at Wikipedia (as my original source didn’t even list “locked room mysteries” as a subgenre and is thus wrong) there...

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June 22, 2025

Extra Nate: AITA for disowning my daughter

I (F67) have recently had to disown my oldest daughter (F40) because she is a hateful, hurtful child. I raised her and her three siblings all by myself while they grew up. I kept them clothed and fed and sheltered. Yet when she looks back at her childhood she doesn’t think of the time I was able to get her...

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June 15, 2025

A Very Special Blog Post (Yaya Sisterhood)

Content Warning: Alcoholism, Child Abuse Younger listeners may not know this, but in the 90’s there was a phenomenon of “Very Special Episodes” where ordinarily funny sitcoms would tackle a very heavy and serious topic. These episodes were gut punches that came out of no where and everyone felt terrible afterward. That got me thinking, for no reason in particular,...

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May 18, 2025

Five Years of Words About Books and Thrawn

I am older than I was 5 years ago. I suppose most of us are. It’s strange to me to remember that there was a time before Words About Books. Believe it or not, working on this has become a part of my daily routine. Literally every day I am either recording, editing, reading, or writing something for this project....

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May 5, 2025

What is a Locked Room Mystery?

This is going to contain major spoilers for You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego (and to a lesser extent And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie). It’s not a bad book and this is a rare case where spoilers will affect how much you’ll enjoy it. If you plan to read it at all, please read the book...

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April 26, 2025

What Would Skeletor Actually Do?

The short answer to this question is: whatever it takes. The long answer requires a more nuanced understanding of the man within the skull. Skeletor is undeniably a villain, but that is not all that he is. In his pursuit of power he has committed many crimes. He has also developed ground breaking new technologies, mastered ancient magicks, lead armies,...

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April 18, 2025

Extra Nate: Fire & Blood and Fake History

INTRODUCTION Quarter 2 started off with a book we were really looking forward too. Fire & Blood by George R. R. Martin. The second series by GRRRM that he will ALSO never finish. Featuring such characters as… well I don’t know if there are any actual characters because it’s supposed to be a historical document rather than a narrative. We...

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April 16, 2025

On Tax Policies and Abandoned Epics

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, George R.R. Martin once said the following: Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real...

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April 15, 2025

So I got my first copyright strike…

I don’t think of myself as a YouTuber. From the perspective of Words About Books, YouTube is just one of a dozen directories that this podcast is listed in. Despite this, it is by far the most time consuming directory to engage with. YouTube represents a unique problem and opportunity. It is not well-suited to podcast content, but other platforms...

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Ben's books

The President Is Missing

by Bill Clinton

Where to start with this book? Should I talk about how I don't believe that either James Patterson or Bill Clinton actually did much of the writing? Should I talk about how Bill Clinton is spending his retirement creating Bill Clinton fa...

A Court of Mist and Fury

by Sarah J. Maas

I thought this was pretty ok. I'm team Night Court. I really enjoy that Feyre is getting to have a hipster phase with the cool kids in a fancy Bohemian city. I dont even mind that she has all the super powers, I thought that would bug me...

The Infernal City

by Greg Keyes

I don't often do this, but I'm going to engage in a controversial DNF review. I'm fairly confident that being forced to read every word of the rest of it would only lower my score. I made it about half way through Part 1 of the audio boo...

Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery (Hackett Classics) by Dick Ringler (1-Oct-2007) Paperback

Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery (Hackett Classics) by Dick Ringler (1-Oct-2007) Paperback

by Unknown Author

I've read a few translations of Beowulf, and the only thing that's really missing from this one is the original language text. Ringler does a pretty good job of the translation itself. He includes very solid explanation and context as well.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

by Rebecca Wells

I'm neither a mother nor a daughter so take this with a grain of salt, I guess. Siddalee is a famous stage director who stages a hit play. She's interviewed for a New York Times article. When asked about her childhood she accidentally pr...

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