Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I'm down to 363 unread books on my Kindle! Down from just over 400! I'm trying to be selective about adding new ones, because dying with unread books is probably how you end up as a ghost haunting a library.



Finished:
The Hollow Place by T. Kingfisher. Oh this was so good! I was briefly worried because it is horror, but to me it was more wacky fantasy than scary (there was just a brief scary part). The plot followed two almost-strangers as they end up in a portal between worlds. It was so odd and foreign and interesting! Kingfisher is such a good author. I'm working my way through all of her books.

Storm after Storm by Ryan Graudin. Only reason I finished this one was because it was so short. Set in the same world/book series as Blood for Blood (below), it told the story of a side character. Only problem with that was that this story was set within one of the books, so we knew all the happenings already. Waste of a story, it was just a retelling of part of the plot of one of the series books.

Abandoned:

Endling by Katherine Applegate. Applegate wrote the Animorphs and other good book series, but this one just so completely did not work for me. Too simple, too boring, too generic, too flat. The world building, characters, plot, nothing hooked me. (DNF 22%)

Stormborn by J.T. Williams. I'm not sure if this author was attempting a style with their writing or something, but it was unreadable. The individual words were in English, but together too often they made no sense. It must have been very short, since I gave up at a couple pages in and yet somehow reached 11%. Amazon reviews mention how poorly written and how short it is, so I guess it's not just me. (DNF 11%)

Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin. I had loved this whole series (AU about what the world would be like if the Nazis had won), but the series just kept going slowly downhill. By the time I got to this book, I realized I didn't care anymore. Nothing much happened plot-wise, and the strong Jewish girl main character who somehow escaped concentration camp was falling in love with Nazi boy. Sadly I'm done with this series. (DNF 41%)

Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF books: 11 + 22 + 41 = 74%
Previous abandoned book total: 562%
New total: 636% (six books)

Fell behind on reviewing again, so here's a mass post. Also, I've been trying to resist getting more books, so my kindle is down to 366 unread books!

In no special order:



Quantum Zoo, by (anthology). A collection of stories, all (supposedly) about zoos. Zoos in space, people held in zoos, all sorts of zoos. Unfortunately quite a few stories were clearly not written for this book, only shoehorned in by a character dropping the word "zoo" in dialogue (and that dialogue line obviously added after the story was written). But all in all, even those shoehorned stories were enjoyable. The book did do one thing that annoyed me: Each story came with URLs to Amazon for the authors' other books. I hate it when anthologies are used as advertising... but I got two books from authors I liked, so I guess it worked.

Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn. Going into this book, I had no idea it was 20 years old. I suspect his writing has gotten a lot better since then. This wasn't a bad book, but the characters were so flat. Even by the end of the story, I couldn't name a trait for the main character other than that he was a good man (and through most of the book, I only knew that because other characters said he was). The aliens were sort of interesting. The setting was okay. But with paper thin characters who rarely had more than one trait, the story never hooked me. I'm not sure why I finished it, I really should have dropped it.

The Storm, Cynthia Rylant. What a lovely, wonderful, beautiful little book. It may have been written for readers grades 1-5 (it took me less than an hour to read), but it was so lovely and perfect and just so good. In it a cat-woman dedicated her life to a lighthouse, so she could protect ships at sea. A dog-man's ship wrecked on the shore of her lighthouse, and she nursed him back to health. Though the short story, the two became friends and then more(? They seemed to be in love, but it was outright stated that they had their own beds, maybe because the story was meant for children). When the two rescued three mice-children, they became a family. Somehow, in this short, short story, all of the characters had growth and by the end became something new. Just a perfect little book for readers of any age.

Beast Master's Planet, by Andre Norton. I thought I remembered loving the Beast Master when I was younger. Maybe it didn't age well (it's 60 years old). I didn't hate it, but it just never hooked me. And while Amazon said the world loved the main character, he didn't work at all for me. DNF at 12% (This book was an omnibus though, so I really dropped it at 24% into the story -- plenty of chance for it to hook me.)

Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF book: 12%
Previous abandoned book total: 515%
New total: 527% (five books)

Like so many other aspects of my life, I've fallen so behind on books I've finished or dropped.




Stone Fox: Published in 1980, based on the writing, seemingly illogical actions of the characters, and other things, I had thought it was published in the 40s, 50s, or earlier. DNF at 18%.

The Mage Wars (Black Gryphon/White Gryphon/Silver Gryphon trilogy), by Mercedes Lackey. Loved Black, but White was so odd. Black was a book about magic and fantasy, White was a murder "mystery" set in a world with basically no magic (not much of a mystery, since the readers were nearly outright told who the murderer was in the beginning). The "same" characters were in both stories, but really the only thing the same was their names. DNF at about 50%. After slogging through White, I had little patience for Silver. It was about the kids of the characters in Black/White, but I was bored so DNF at 6%.

The Inheritors, William Golding. What an odd, unenjoyable book this was. I probably had picked it up since I liked Lord of the Flies when I was younger. This one was about psychic cavemen. Didn't work for me at all. DNF 5%.

Crooked Raven by Talis Jones. A Death character collects dying kids, but a living kid wanted to go with her dying sibling, and since she was the Chosen One, Death brought her along, too. DNF 5%.

The Road to Winter by Mark Smith. Typical "virus killed off everyone in the world" story, but it was the worst timing ever to read a book like this. I nearly dropped it from the first page. Set in Australia, a boy (Finn) with a speech impediment lived alone with his dog when a girl on the run (from a gang of evil survivors) showed up on his doorstep. I rarely have to look up one word in multiple books, but this one was so Australian, I kept having to look things up (loved that!). All in all, enjoyable story.

A Darkness of Dragons by S.A. Patrick. I might have been just the wrong audience for this one. In a world where Pipers (as in the Pied Piper of Hamelyn) were the most important people and able to do magic with their pipes, there's only one song that's forbidden (the one that charms people, like the Pied Piper played). Interesting world, interesting story, but every adult character was nothing but a paper cutout. No character, nothing to them other than a tool or a foil for the kid characters. DNF 16%.

The City Bleeds Gold by Lucy Saxon. A well-born son spends half his life disguised as an undercity crime fighter. I didn't like or believe the main character and I was bored with the story and worldbuilding. DNF 7%.

Partial book credits:
Point reached in these books: 18%, 50%, 6%, 5%, 5%, 16%, 7% = 107%
Previous abandoned book total: 408%
New total: 515% (five books)

Beautiful Blue World by Suzanne LaFleur
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Loved (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I had thought this was an adult book written in an extremely minimalist style, but it turns out it's meant for readers aged 8-12 years old, which explains why so much was left unsaid.

Though set on some alternate world, there is NO worldbuilding at all. None. I had no idea even where or when the book was set for the first part of the book. It felt like Earth during one of the World Wars.

The main character, Mathilde, lived in a town being air bombed at night by whatever country they were at war with. Apparently the war had been going on a while. Food was scarce, resources were hard to get. Most men were sent off to "the front", with only the old men left to form a local street-level defense force.

The (whatever) country government, the one Mathilde lived in, held a national test to find kids talented enough to help in the war.

At that point I worried things were going downhill, Hunger Games direction. But nope! They were looking for both smart and special kids. Kids gifted in math and other stuff. Ones to work on decoding messages and working out patterns of attacks and such. The families of those kids would get money, which might make the difference on them surviving, so Mathilde took the test.

She was picked, and whisked off across (whatever country) to an old house used as a training center.

It was at this point that one of the characters mentioned in dialogue the name of the country and who they were fighting, and it was only at that point I knew it wasn't set on Earth.

In the old house where all the kids work out of, Mathilde was confused. She wasn't the best student, she wasn't talented in any way, so why did they pick her? Turned out she did have a special skill: Empathy. They brought her in to befriend a teenage boy, a prisoner of war, and to get information out of him. End spoiler.

Even before I knew how young the intended audience was, I was really impressed with this book. So much was unsaid about the horrors of war, but I could fill it in myself.

I already started the sequel.

Exiled: Clan of the Claw by S. M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, John Ringo, and Jody Lynn Nye
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Check out the cover of this one, it's like some classic scifi from the 70s.

Set on Earth, the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs never hit, so reptiles evolved into the dominant species. During an ice age, there was a window that let a mammal species evolve, but this time it was feline instead of ape.

The book contained four novellas set in this world. The first two were so good! The two species were handled so well. Both felt so realistic, their views (and hatred) of the other were so believable.

The Merm (cat people) were exactly what you would expect of some large cat species that evolved to walk on two legs and be able to think. Perfectly cat-like. The Lishash (lizard people) were just as realistic and believable.

The third novella was different though. It didn't seem to match the first two at all. Everything was too modern. The ... Hm. Okay. Reading the reviews, apparently each story was supposed to be a take on the theme, not all set in the same world. That explains why novellas 3 and 4 felt so different. I guess that's sort of an interesting way to handle it.

I made myself finish 3, but couldn't finish 4. DNF the book at 85%.


Partial book credits:
Point reached in this book: 85%
Previous abandoned book total: 315%
New total: 400% (four books)

Feral by Nicole Luiken
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Good YA books are enjoyable to adult readers too, but I guess you can't ding a YA book for being enjoyable only to young readers?

Set in the modern world with the addition of a few supernatural elements, the plot is about the daughter of two werewolves couldn't shift, so she was considered a "dud". The story follows her progress towards learning to shift, and then her meeting (and falling in love with) a werewolf stuck in wolf form.

I love werewolf stories. Werewolves are really the only supernatural thing I like, and I like them a whole lot. That is the one and only thing that saved this book for me: I really liked how the author's werewolves interacted.

Not just once, but twice major plot points could have been easily solved if the main character had just talked to her parents. She had a good relationship with them, she loved and respected them (and they her), there was no reason why she couldn't just talk to them.

As much as I liked the werewolves, I hated the other supernatural elements of the book. If you're going to have a witch, fine, but why did it have to be a known one from folklore? I would rather the author had used an original one instead of Baba Yaga.

The setting was nothing original, the characters were dull and flat, the plot was seriously meh. Even the title didn't even fit (there was a feral werewolf in the story, but he was not the main character). Unless you like werewolves as much as I do, you'll want to skip this one.

One Man by Harry Connolly
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Okay (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



Connolly is the author of that trilogy I liked so much, so I tried the other series he wrote, but that hadn't worked for me, so I was hoping this stand-alone book would be better. Sadly nope. I didn't like the world it was set in much, the characters didn't interest me, and the plot didn't hook me. I gave it a couple nights of reading, more than I would have a book written by someone else, then gave up at the 5% point.

Partial book credits:
Point reached in this book: 5%
Previous abandoned book total: 310%
New total: 315% (three books)

The Way Into Chaos by Harry Connolly
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Loved! (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



The Way Into Magic by Harry Connolly
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Loved! (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



The Way Into Darkness by Harry Connolly
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Loved! (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I did exactly what I try not to do: After I read a book, I'm supposed to write up the review before I go on to the next one. But I loved this series so much, I couldn't stop. As soon as I finished one book, I immediately started the next.

Because of that, unfortunately I can't review each book individually, which is a crime. Each one deserves its own review, but the whole story is just one unit in my head now, not three books. So here goes the review for the whole series:

Set in some fantasy world populated by humans of about medieval technology level, once a generation a magical portal opens. Out from it come visitors. Aliens? Differently evolved humans? Creatures from another dimension? No one knows. These visitors (the Evening People) hate all fighting and violence, so for the week they stay, the humans of the city move all their weapons out into the countryside. They put on plays, tell stories, and sing songs to entertain their guests, but only about nonviolent things.

Why cater to them? Because if the Evening People are pleased, they give humanity one magic spell. One magic spell per generation. Things like 'create pure water', 'shape stone', 'create light', 'make object fly'. As you can imagine, this makes the people of that nation the Evening People visit much more powerful than any other nation in the world.

--- If you're intending to read these books, and I strongly recommend that you do, beware spoilers from this point forward. ---

The story opens as the city is getting ready for this generation's visit from the Evening People. All weapons have been stored off in the countryside. The whole city is ready for a week long festival. The portal opens... and out come monsters.

A flood of monsters. A sea of monsters. Purple-furred, larger than bears, faster than cats, armed with giant claws and teeth. Nightmares. The portal always stays open for one week, and the monsters surge out without end.

The city (which had unarmed for the visit) falls in hours. The king and queen are both killed in minutes. As the last of the city is destroyed, one doctor (what the world calls the few individuals able to use the gifted spells) closes the portal with a rogue spell. It's too late though, the damage is done. Thousands of these monsters have spilled out.

The monsters are basically impossible for humans to fight. A troop of soldiers were all killed by one. They're too strong, too fast... and it turns out their bite turns you into one of them.

[This was the only time in three books, three long books, that I got frowny. I thought this was basically going to become a zombie story, but luckily I was wrong.]

Through a magic spell, one of the characters can briefly understand what the monsters say. It turns out they're not just animals: they speak. They call themselves The Blessing. To bite you is to pass on the blessing.

Through the series, The Blessing spread, making more and more of themselves. Cities have no defenses against them. Any damage they take can be regenerated by them. And with each person they bite, more and more of them are created.

The series has two main characters: An old soldier (badly near sighted -- how cool is that in a main character!) and a young woman who is learning magic (and held hostage by the royal family for crimes her parents committed). Holy cow, did I love them so! Even though the old soldier (Tejohn) was set in his ways, even though the girl (Cazia) hated the world (with good reason), they both grew and changed so much!

Most reviewers mention Cazia most, since she's probably one of the best written female characters ever in fiction. So very realistic, flawed, strong, she is amazing.

To me though, it was Tejohn who held my heart the strongest. A good man in this horrible situation, trying to save everyone, having to not be able to save his family because he was trying to save everyone else. Such a good, flawed man. Imperfect but trying his hardest to do the right thing. I loved his journey of change through the books.

If you've followed my reviews, you might remember that I generally LOVE the first book of a series, then my feelings about the later ones go down and down, because I love world building best of all. That did not happen with this series. There was as much worldbuilding in book three as book one! The characters themselves learned so much, and through them so did we. Even in the last pages of the story, we were still learning how the world/universe worked.

I really can't say enough about this world the author created. So many nations, all different from each other. So many different races of people and other creatures. So many details of the world! It was just so so so good.

My biggest (and only) disappointment was something unrelated to the story: There was 5% of the book left, over 30 minutes of reading per my Kindle, and the story ended. Why? Because the remaining 5% was a list of Kickstarter supporters. I was so jarred that the story ended (even though it was a great place to stop it) because there was so much of the book left. Sadly, it changed the feeling I ended the book with.

If you enjoy fantasy stories, worldbuilding, and realistic characters, you should check out this series! Now I'm off to find the other books he's written...

Dark Disciple (Star Wars) by Christie Golden
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)


(Edit: What an ugly cover this is! I hadn't seen it until I was making this post.)

Based on an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars that never got made, this story was about the lengths the Jedis would go to to try to kill Count Dooku. [Edit: Correction, apparently it was supposed to be an arc, not just one episode, which makes more sense.]

The Jedi Council decided to try to assassinate Dooku, even though assassination is apparently a tactic that only the Dark Side uses. They picked their Jedi to do it (Quinlan Vos) and assigned him to track down and partner with a Sith assassin named Asajj Ventress.

Vos finds her, and through most wonderful character progression on both sides, he and Ventress learn to trust each other, become friends, and then fall in love. It's very rare that I believe relationships in stories, but I really liked how it was handled in this one.

The rest of the story followed the maze-like twists and turns as the two try to kill the big bad guy.

There was a whole lot I liked about this story, and multiple times I thought I would rate it 'Loved'.
- I really, really enjoy when a character's morals change (in this case, a good man was forced to become evil, but he did so for a morally good reason).
- I also enjoyed early on not knowing if he was good or bad (Is he a good guy pretending to be bad? Or a bad guy pretending to be a good guy pretending to be a bad guy?).
- From major to minor, I believed all of the characters as real, complete people. Even Dooku, who could be a cartoonish level bad guy, had his own motives, flaws, and all the things that made him seem human.

I had a number of issues that made me not love the story. A few of them weren't the book's fault though.
Not the book's fault:
- Where the heck are the female Jedi? Through the story we met more than a dozen Jedi, and every single one was male. (I suppose this is because the source material is 40 years old.)
- What the heck is with Jedi not permitting to have emotional attachment to people? That does not make you stronger, that does not make you more of a good person, it does the opposite. (I suppose this is also because how old the source is.)
- I find I really have issues with the whole Light Side/Dark Side thing. Life is not that simple. More than that, it's boring to have everything so black/white.

Issues with the book:
- During the first quarter of the book, I thought it would be a crime if this had been a 20 minute episode instead of a 7 hour book. I loved how detailed and slow-moving it was, how there was so much time to give character background and cover motives and all that. But by the halfway point, it was feeling overly long and padded. The fight scenes especially were boring, and I started skimming those. (I know light saber fights are a big part of the canon though, so that's probably more of a me-issue.)
- I like not knowing what side someone is on. "Is he a good guy? bad?" I like it when someone is undercover. I was even okay with him being a double agent. But by the end of the book I think the main character was a quadruple agent and that was just too much. I had no idea what he really was. (And it turned out HE had no idea, either...)
- I don't know if this is a canon issue or story issue, but man I do not like Jedis. They seem like sticks in the mud, no fun, righteous, holier than thou, and through this whole story they didn't even stick to their own moral codes.
- Minor issue: As far as I remember, Vos was never described in the book. In the last few pages it was mentioned he had dark skin, which made me blink in surprise. I guess that since this was based on the cartoon, the author just assumed everyone knew what he looked like. (Not a bad assumption, I just fell through the cracks.)
- The ending of the book was very, very, very unsatisfying. Through the whole book, Vos was back-and-forth between the Light Side and Dark Side, and the whole point the love of his life had been tying to teach him was that it's better to be part of both sides, be balanced, but in the end he became a Jedi again. It made the whole story feel so completely pointless. All the changes and growth he went through were for nothing: He ended up exactly as he had started out. /end spoiler

All in all, I liked the book. I made time during the day to read it, squeezing in extra reading time when I could. I wish I could say I loved it, but I think because I liked it so much, the few flaws it had seemed to have more impact. (Also my issues with the Star Wars canon itself.)

Orphaned by Eliot Schrefer
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



When I started this book, I described it as a talking animal story, but that turned out to be wrong. Even when they're very realistic, the animals in those stories aren't true animals. This book was about true animals; it was about gorillas living in prehistoric times. Told (experienced?) though the eyes of Snub, a young female gorilla.

There isn't much plot to describe. Early in the story, a volcano explodes and so Snub's family group has to relocate. Late in the story, they encounter not-gorillas (early humans). Mostly it was about how gorillas live in the natural world.

I completely believed Snub's voice. Her thoughts, behaviors, and interactions felt completely true to me. The author included repeated use of four gorilla noises (each noise defined in the header of chapter one). Like hoo meant peacefulness. mrgh meant readiness to attack. The four word sounds were used extensively through the story and really helped with the feel of it.

The author did another great trick: The header of each chapter had a little illustration telling you which gorillas were in it. I quickly enough learned to glance at it and check to see who would be there. At the end of the book, the author explained he did that on purpose, to give the reader the same awareness that a gorilla would have of its family.

If this was such a perfect animal book, why did I rate it a liked instead of loved? Two reasons:

1: There was basically no plot. About a third of the way in I was bored and ready to move on to something else. It was very good, but without an overarching story, I didn't feel driven to continue.

2: The larger issue. It was written in prose. Freeform poetry. I'll open to a random page and quote how it looks.

Skitter-scatter of rocks
shards tumbling into the canyon,
sending the gorillas clutching one
another--
except Silverback,
up on two legs and roaring.
Sharp line the ledge above.
Darting, grunting.
Maybe these are new gorillas.
Silverback beats his chest,
wragh.

When I first started the book, I spent so much time troubleshooting it and my Kindle. I thought something was making the lines break oddly.

Is prose nice? Does it fit in this story? Yes! But it was way, way, way too disruptive to read a whole book in it. I couldn't get lost in the story at all, because I never lost awareness of the writing.

I did save a quote I loved:

The little body in her aching arms is
the courage she needs.

Is this a good book? For sure! It's really well written and a great read! I just wish I had enjoyed it more.

Stone Age Tales: The Great Cave by Terry Deary
Traditional or self-published: Traditional
Rating: Hated (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I hate to say it, but there wasn't one thing I enjoyed about this book. It was meant for very young readers (age 7-9), so that might explain some of it.

The story was so flimsy, so thin. Those young Disney reader books (for the same age group) had stories an adult could enjoy as well, so the target audience isn't necessarily an excuse.

The bad guy's motives and reasons for his (so called) change of heart were more shallow than a puddle. It was explained in one single sentence.

The story had many illustrations, and I hated every single one of them. Same style as the cover, but black and white and less finished. It was just so unattractive and uninteresting. The body proportions were so wrong.

The only reason I finished the book at all was because it was so short. Not only was it a tiny book, a third of it was dedicated to how to use it as a teaching tool for your kids.

Just a complete miss for me.

Currently reading: 400 Boys and 50 More. 51 short stories by Marc Laidlaw. I try to avoid short story collections, so why did I download this? Did I like the title that much? Did I hear of Laidlaw from somewhere else and wanted to check out his work? He is a video game writer (Half Life and Dota2), could that be why? I wish I could remember...

Last year I read 80 books. If I keep going at the pace I'm at now, this year I'll read 8. That's so depressing!

Imperium Lupi by Adam Browne
Traditional or self-published: Self-published
Rating: Liked (Hated-Disliked-Okay-Liked-Loved)



I don't believe I've read a furry book before (or at least never finished one), so this was interesting in that aspect. It was also steampunk-ish, which I like (I seem to like steampunk-ish more than actual steampunk).

Set in a fantasy world, this story was more worldbuilding and characters than plot (which again, is is a ratio I do enjoy, so that worked for me). The world had a form of mineral/radiation called Imperium. It exists in a rainbow of colors, each having a different amount of power (and damage it does). The "people" ("beasts" is the term the book uses) of the world use Imperium to power everything from light bulbs to trains. Using Imperium creates "ash" which poisons and eventually kills everything it touches: Plants, soil, beasts, everything.

All that is interesting enough worldbuilding for me to like it, but then you get to the "Howlers". Beasts who are born with more Imperium in them, so it makes them into "super men" kind of. When these beasts with extra Imperium in them are found, they're taken in by the government and injected with even more to make them even more super. But still, it's poison, so they have very short, painful lives.

All in all, the book was really a good match for me. Unfortunately there were quite a few issues as well.

Small things, like all the (few, few, few) times there was a female character, the animal name got an -ess on it. Wolfess. Catess. Etc.

There were nearly no female characters in the giant cast of characters. The one single female character with power, in the very first scene she was in, used sex to get her way. She repeatedly used sex through the book. Sigh.

Then the bigger issues, like the Howlers. In the beginning of the book, we learned that only men could become them (sigh). Female beasts didn't have the right genetics for it. In the middle of the book, we met a female Howler. By the end of the book (just a couple days later in story-time), it was stated that female Howlers were just uncommon. I think the author lost track of what he had said earlier on.

All the cops in the book were hogs (...pigs...).

And while it was never stated outright, I got an odd Nazi-ish feeling about things. One of the salutes was described as sharply lifting your arm, which sure could be other kinds of salutes, but there was word choice and a number of other things. Perhaps the author was aiming for fascism in general.

There was no need at all for the characters to be furry. They were just people. If they had been human, there would have been no difference at all to the story. (That's so sad! What a missed opportunity!)

And last (but not least), there was the art the author posted (I linked to it in my earlier post here). I could never get those "balloon muscle" images out of my head, through the whole story.

Even with all those issues, I did enjoy the book. There are a few more out in the series, but I'm going to move on to something else for now (I'm in the mood for something lighter).