The Books I Read - June 2024

I've really started to enjoy the "Books of Raksura", it's nice to discover that there are a fourth and fifth.

---

Stats for June - (Year to date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 10 (71)

Pages Read - 3213 (23741)

The Books Read

The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells	Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
The Art of Focused Conversation: 100 Ways to Access Group Wisdom in the Workplace edited by R. Brian Stanfield	The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera	A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie	The Siren Depths by Martha Wells
Murder at the Serpentine Bridge by Andrea Penrose	Mobilization by Yoshiki Tanaka

June 2024 Covers

Authors

Unique Authors: 9 (32)

Author - books read - pages read

Adrian Tchaikovsky (1 - 592)	Amanda Cross (1 - 186)
Andrea Penrose - 1 - 304 (6 - 2,096)	Ann Leckie - 1 - 397 (1 - 397)
Anna Lee Huber (1 - 384)	Ben H. Winters (1 - 322)
Bowles, Burns, Hixson, Jenness, Tellers (1 - 288)	Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (1 - 293)
Carola Dunn (8 - 1,969)	Charles Todd (1 - 352)
CLAMP (4 - 1,934)	Daniel O'Malley (1 - 688)
Deanna Raybourn (3 - 996)	Dorothy L. Sayers (1 - 132)
Elly Griffiths - 1 - 374 (11 - 4,009)	Hanna Hagen Bjørgaas (1 - 258)
Heather Fawcett - 1 - 320 (1 - 320)	Ian Rankin (1 - 241)
Ilona Andrews (2 - 668)	Jacqueline Winspear (1 - 352)
Katherine Addison (1 - 448)	Katie Mack (1 - 237)
Louise Penny - 1 - 313 (3 - 1,042)	Martha Wells - 2 - 677 (3 - 1,101)
Mary Robinette Kowal (3 - 841)	Milan Kundera - 1 - 314 (1 - 314)
Nicholas Eames (1 - 464)	Oliver Burkeman (1 - 290)
R. Brian Stanfield - 1 - 242 (1 - 242)	Sherry Thomas (1 - 364)
Shonda Rhimes (1 - 337)	Suzette Mayr (1 - 224)
T. Kingfisher (1 - 114)	Tomohito Oda (1 - 192)
Toshikazu Kawaguchi (1 - 227)	Vernor Vinge (1 - 555)
Yoshiki Tanaka - 1 - 272 (1 - 272)

June 2024 Author Cloud

1920s - (1)	1960s - (1)
1980s - 2 (3)	1990s - 1 (10)
2000s - 1 (3)	2010s - 3 (34)
2020s - 3 (19)

Source

Audible - 1 (4)	Author's Website - (1)
Borrowed From Friend - 1 (2)	Kobo - 3 (14)
Libby - 5 (40)	Libro fm - (6)
My Library - (1)	Shared - (3)

Formats

Audio Book - 4 (34)	Blog Post - (1)
eBook - 5 (28)	eBook Comic - (5)
Hardcover - (2)	Paperback - 1 (1)

The Video Games I Played - April 2024

This is the second in the catch up Games posts, the games I played in April. I've been able to fix a few things, mostly that make my life better There are a few things I haven't fixed, particularly the months played letters, but I'm looking at how to do that better. I've noticed where my RSS reader doesn't apply CSS they're also pretty obstructive. There are probably also a few things I'm forgetting to automate, which I got right for the March post and wrong her.e

I'd like to get caught up on these and then I can fix stuff up and make things better.

The Games I Played in April

• Hades
• Hollow Knight
• Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe)
• Pikmin 4
• Stardew Valley
• Unicorn Overlord

The Games

Dicey Dungeons

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Terry Cavanagh
• Published: August 2019

Played In:

Tags

 Random   Hard   Engaging    

Europa Universalis IV

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Paradox
• Published: August 2013

Played In:

Tags

 Strategy   Absorbing    

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Published: March 2006

Played In:

Tags

 RPG   Story Time Game   Grind    

Notes

• February

  I had planned to focus on playing Final Fantasy XII, as the game I'm playing to enjoy the story and chill out with. The problem with this is that I'm finding FFXIII to be profoundly boring. I just don't really want to play it and it doesn't seem to have a ratio of story-to-gameplay that pushes me to keep playing. (I'm not sure what the ratio of story-to-gameplay is nor where it pushes me to play games, but it seems like a workable metaphor, is there something good enough to make you want to play even if something else makes you not want to play.)

Hades

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Supergiant Games
• Published: September 2020

Played In:

Tags

 Story   Roguelike 

Notes

• April

  Watched Stephen Goerg beat Meg in a half an hour with 1 HP. Had already been thinking about picking it up on the Switch and that really pushed me over the edge. It's one of the games I've missed a lot not having a gaming pc.

Hollow Knight

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Team Cherry
• Published: February 2017

Played In:

Tags

 Lovecraftian   Adventure   Gameplay    

Notes

• February

  I trailed off Hollow Knight, as I often do. Honestly February was not a month where I wanted to play games much.

• April

  Poking around again. Even if I don't have the skill or strength to finish it (maybe) Hollow Knight feels really good to play. (Also watched Dan Floyd playa bunch. Studios really need to get games in the hands of the YouTubers I follow to get me to play them.

Into the Breach

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Subset Games
• Published: February 2018

Played In:

Tags

 Brain Candy   Tactics   Puzzles   Gaining Skill    

Notes

• March

  Crunching through the achievements has been an interesting way to keep playing. There are a lot of interesting ways you can play and uses of mechanics and the achievements bring them to light and I've gotten pretty good (at least at the easy mode).

Invisible, Inc.

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Klei Entertainment
• Published: May 2015

Played In:

Tags

 Tactics   Roguelike    

Kingdoms and Castles

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Lion Shield
• Published: July 2017

Played In:

Tags

 Building   City Walker    

Notes

• March

  In response to Sunless Sea, I'm hunting for cozy world building and adventure. This has a bit, although I feel like I keep topping out the economy a little early. Maybe I should add more conflict, but just making a town is nice.

Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe)

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Published: April 2017

Played In:

Tags

 Game feel   Vroom   Gaining Skill    

Notes

• March

  The "Internet" started showing me tips about how to get better at Mario Kart 8 and ... I'm starting to get better.

• April

  Ok, I guess my feelings are still just push button go fast

Minecraft

• Platform: MacOS
• Publisher: Mojang / Microsoft
• Published: November 2011

Played In:

Tags

 Building    

Notes

• March

  Wanted to build something and this *is* a good old fashoned game I can build things in.

Pikmin 4

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Published: July 2023

Played In:

Tags

 Gameplay   Colours   Adventure    

Notes

• March

  "Finished" for the second time. Really loving how it feels and how much interesting things they've included. I'd really like a few more areas and activities (like the Olimar stories), but even as it shipped this is a lot of good Pikmin. As I mention a lot, I think the feel of Pikmin 3 is a little more charming, but Pikmin 4 is a much more solid game. (Also how did a decade pass between these two games...)

• April

  Had a little bit to finish, but somehow drifted off to Unicorn Overlord. Felt very out of practice and kinda got my butt kicked.

Prison Architect

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Introversion Software / Paradox
• Published: October 2015

Played In:

Tags

 Building    

Sea of Stars

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Sabotage Studio
• Published: August 2023

Played In:

Tags

 RPG   Canadian   Chrono Trigger   Colour   Adventure 

Stardew Valley

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Concerned Ape
• Published: February 2016

Played In:

Tags

 Cozy   Farming   Simulation 

Notes

• April

  Really enjoying the updates and also just in a place right now where the building feels good.

Sunless Sea

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Failbetter Games
• Published: February 2015

Played In:

Tags

 Adventure   Lovecraftian   Entropy 

Notes

• March

  I really wanted to build economy and make the world better, but that's very much not alligned with how this game actually works. I very firmly put this down, since the end-of-the-world feeling was just not where I wanted to be. Hunting to find an economy builder that really feels like growth.

Super Mario Odyssey

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Published: October 2017

Played In:

Tags

 Game feel   Movement   Colours 

Unicorn Overlord

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publisher: Vanillaware / Atlus / Sega
• Published: March 2024

Played In:

Tags

 Ogre Battle   Tactics   Strategy   Autowalk   Fighting   Grey 

Notes

• March

  If you've seen how I've written about Ogre Battle in the past, you'll note that it's a game I love without necessarily feeling like it's great from a mechanical point of view. Unicorn Overlord catches the feeling of Ogre Battle that I love and actually seems to be pretty action packed and fun to play. I think the name is a little dumb, but I guess so is Ogre Battle.

• April

  This has been really engaging. The smaller game loops support keep you interested and the main game loop feels fun and challenging.

Wildermyth

• Platform: Steam
• Publisher: Worldwalker Games
• Published: June 2021

Played In:

Tags

 Tactics   Story Telling   Family 

Notes

• February

  Wildermyth I played a bit of and think it looks interesting, but I think it's a think I could play with my partner and we could have a lot of fun with it, so I've been holding off looking closer.