It’s Sunday. Let’s talk about BOOKS 📚

First of all, Lets Talk BOOKS 📚 will be taking a break for a few weeks.

On August 25th I will be on vacation out of town with my sister.

Over the next three weeks I will undergo phase 2 of my thyroid cancer treatment, which includes iodine radiation.

So we’ll be back on Sunday, September 22nd.

Hope to see you all then!

This week I want to introduce books by authors you already know and love, but haven’t read yet.

For me, the author is John Scalzi, who most people know for his cult novel Red Shirts (which, if you haven’t read it, is AMAZING).

John’s work has been nominated for a number of awards in the science fiction genre and he has won both a Hugo (three times) and a Dragon (once).

https://www.sfadb.com/John_Scalzi

Redshirts: A novel with three codas – Novel – winner

Your hate mail is being evaluated: A decade of whatever, 1998-2008 — related book — winner

Fan Author — winner (no further information is available as to what type of fan writing this victory was awarded for)

Side note: The 2009 award goes to John’s blog: Whatever

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and a little further down the page you will find the following:

Cast your vote on

If you are a U.S. citizen and are 18 years of age or older, 2024 will be an incredibly important election year. It is important that you register to vote and then vote whenever you have the opportunity this year.

Vote.gov can help you register to vote, verify that your registration is current, and provide you with other tools you need to vote and make your voice heard.
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Who knew that John Scalzi was a voter registration activist?

The book by John that I haven’t read is called “The Kaiju Preservation Society,” but that’s not true. I borrowed it from Amazon through the Kindle Unlimited program and as of today at 7:00 a.m. PST, I still haven’t read it.

But I’m on page 47 as of 20 minutes ago when I started writing today’s story (that was around 9am PST).

Like all of John’s works I’ve read, the story starts off quite harmlessly.

Jamie Gray is working at a startup in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak is still in its early stages, but masks are already being worn. He has a meeting with the boss, expecting to pitch his ideas on how the company (a food delivery app that launched shortly before COVID) can dominate the food delivery market just as demand for the service is about to skyrocket. To his shock, he is fired instead, with the message that he could, of course, choose to stay with the company, just accepting a demotion from an upper-floor management position to “delivery guy” (the term is his boss’s idea).

As it turns out, Jaime actually takes the job because there are no jobs available during the early “stay home” phase of the COVID pandemic.

On the next page, the story takes an abrupt turn: Six months of Deliverator hell have passed, and Jamie is delivering food to a guy. As it turns out, Jamie knew him (passively) when he was still working at a college before he (foolishly) decided to leave the hallowed halls of education and launch a startup.

Page 10:

I nodded and turned around to leave.

“Wait,” the guy said. “Jamie… Gray?”

Oh my Godsaid my brain. Just go away. Walk away and never admit that anyone knows your shame. But as my brain said that, my body turned around, because like puppies, we’re wired to turn when our name is called. “That’s me,” I said, the words just pouring out of me, the last one sounding like my tongue was desperately trying to remember the whole sentence.

The guy smiled, put down his bag, stepped back to get out of the immediate breathing zone, and briefly removed his mask so I could see his face. Then he put it back on. “It’s Tom Stevens.”

My brain raced through the original LinkedIn data in my memory, trying to figure out where I knew this guy from. He wasn’t much help; he obviously expected to be so memorable that he would immediately spring to mind. He wasn’t, and yet –

“Tom Steven, who dated Iris Banks, who was best friends with my roommate Diego when I lived in that apartment on South Kimbark just above Fifty-third Street, and who sometimes came to our parties,” I said.

“That’s very accurate,” said Tom.

“You went to business school.”

“I did. I hope you don’t mind. Not super academic.”

“I mean,” I pointed to the very nice condo in the brand new building, “it turned out pretty well for you.”

After a brief conversation, Tom offers Jamie a job. One that doesn’t seem to require anything special, except that Jaime should expect a guy who lifts things upIn other words, an errand boy and maybe a bit of a worker too.

After a quick chat with his roommates, Jamie decides to take the job. Hell, it couldn’t be worse than working for the guy who stole his idea of ​​how to dominate the food delivery market and then sold the company to Uber Eats for $4 billion.

I can’t wait to read the rest of the story! The entire story was only 15 pages and 2 chapters long.

Have you recently come across a book whose author you know quite well and whose work you like, but you thought the title or blurb sounded strange?

Let’s talk about it…