SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Well, isn't there a physician in that story? Might he be questioning his life choices?

"Based on your 2020s SFF by Women shelf, you may enjoy the following:"

I did enjoy it 45 years ago, don't get me wrong...

Beth wrote: ""Based on your 2020s SFF by Women shelf, you may enjoy the following:"

I did enjoy it 45 years ago, don't get me wrong..."

I don't think that book even had a major female character...

Because I am currently reading :

Goodreads thinks I should read

Well, Goodreads, at least you tried.

you like Ravens. you like kings. boom. home run!

“Because you enjoyed Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

GR recommends Little Pretty Things

Too lazy to screenshot, but I'm looking at my wishlist on Amazon, filled with ebooks, nothing else. I scroll to the bottom, and there's the recs section. It's two pages of different types of beard trimmers and body hair groomers. Examples:

- Micro Touch SOLO Men's Rechargeable Full Body Hair Trimmer, Shaver and Groomer

- Remington MB4700 Smart Beard Trimmer with Memory Settings and Digital Touch Screen

- Micro Touch Titanium Trim Hair Cutting Tool, Body Shaver and Groomer

- Gillette Fusion5 Men's Razor Blade Refills, 10 Count + Fusion5 ProGlide Razor Blade Refills

- Limural Mens Electric Razors for Shaving, Electric Shavers for Men with Extra Replacement Blade

I don't even have any werewolf books on my wishlist, so what are you trying to say, Amazon?!

edit: Wait, there's something called "Battery Daddy" on the list, too, wtf?! XD

Lol!!

lmao!!

👀👀👀



(But wait. Is this algorithm prepping for holiday gift season...?)

LOL. I don’t know if people do it elsewhere but here in England the men grow beards in November. I can’t remember why. But maybe Amazon just thinks everyone will need a shaver by December?

in the US western states where it's cold in the winter, they also grow beards in the winter to keep their faces warm

DivaDiane wrote: "LOL. I don’t know if people do it elsewhere but here in England the men grow beards in November. I can’t remember why. But maybe Amazon just thinks everyone will need a shaver by December?"

Growing out facial hair (No-Shave November) or just mustaches (Movember) happens in other countries too. I was curious about why, went digging, and discovered that they're intended to raise awareness of and funds for cancer research and men's health issues.

A school library where our therapy dog volunteers has a cute "I mustache you to read these books" program in November. He wasn't a fan of getting his picture taken with a fake mustache but the kids liked the result.

Pushing shavers might be a Jeff Bezos thing. And I am not doing a search on "Battery Daddy."

Haha, I did search Battery Daddy, and it's stupid XD I could maybe see someone in 1985 needing it? (edit: Or I guess if I buy all those grooming devices and they're all battery powered, then I'll definitely need it!)

I went back to see my wishlist just now, and some of those things are still on the list, but with fun additions:

- Dr. Squatch Men's Soap Variety Pack – Manly Scent Bar Soaps: Pine Tar, Gold Moss, Cedar Citrus, Bay Rum, Cool Fresh Aloe

- Dr. Squatch Pine Tar Soap – Mens Soap with Natural Woodsy Scent and Skin Scrub Exfoliation

- MANSCAPED™ The Weed Whacker™ Nose and Ear Hair Trimmer – 9,000 RPM Painless Precision Tool with Rechargeable Battery

- Dr. Scholl's Work Massaging Gel Advanced Insoles for Men Shoe Inserts

CLEARLY the Amazon mole is messing with me XD but do they think *I* am an old man, or that I need to buy these things for someone else?

Raucous wrote: "A school library where our therapy dog volunteers has a cute "I mustache you to read these books" program in November. He wasn't a fan of getting his picture taken with a fake mustache but the kids liked the result."

This is so cute! ^_^ Both the reading program and the moustachioed doggo!

This is hilarious! 😄

You can actually find out what triggered these recs if you click on "improve my recommendations" - then you'll be shown why something is recommended to you (which item you've bought or rated is to blame for it) and change it.

I did look (yesterday) at what I've recently browsed, and it's all SFF ebooks. I didn't go into the detailed list, because as I said, lazy :P But I do edit it frequently, especially when I "buy" a free ebook that isn't exactly my usual fare.

I have disappointing news :( I went to take a closer look, and it's not personalized recs after all! It's "Buy in other parts of the store". I'm so used to it being recs that I didn't even look at the section title/header. I went specifically to the recs section, and I get "Page Not Found", so there's something wrong with my recs or recs in general and that's why it's showing these.

I'm a tad disappointed, this isn't nearly as fun as if it was personalized :D

edit: But I guess it's kinda funny that if you don't have personalized recs, this is what it defaults to?

DivaDiane wrote: "LOL. I don’t know if people do it elsewhere but here in England the men grow beards in November. I can’t remember why. But maybe Amazon just thinks everyone will need a shaver by December?"

I believe it was for men's health month and they call it BROvember. It was originally done to help 'GROW' awareness for men's health. Which is strange because both November and June celebrate it I thought. Maybe because breast cancer is October so Beards also start with 'B'? *shrug*

Anna wrote: "I have disappointing news :( I went to take a closer look, and it's not personalized recs after all! It's "Buy in other parts of the store". I'm so used to it being recs that I didn't even look at ..."

the recommendations system on amazon.com is seriously messed up right now.

Andres wrote: "DivaDiane wrote: "LOL. I don’t know if people do it elsewhere but here in England the men grow beards in November. I can’t remember why. But maybe Amazon just thinks everyone will need a shaver by ..."

Here in Australia, it's called 'Movember' and it's all about Men's Health, prostate cancer etc.

Leonie wrote: "Andres wrote: "DivaDiane wrote: "LOL. I don’t know if people do it elsewhere but here in England the men grow beards in November. I can’t remember why. But maybe Amazon just thinks everyone will ne..."

Yes, I think it might cross borders. I believe it's about growing moustaches, as opposed to beards. Not sure if I can pull it off, but maybe I'll get in on it this year :)

Just got one that was "Because you read "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars..."

Rec was:

The Lost Fortune of the Tsars

XD

Is it just rhyming stars and Tsars? lol

Maybe the algorithm is dyslexic?

"so, our ratings algorithm isn't working, let's try...rhyming?"

At least that one rhymes, Allison! That Barry Manilow rec I got still boggles my mind!

I'm looking at the Strange Beasts of China book page, and in the "Readers also enjoyed" section I see: Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I haven't started Beasts yet, so maybe this is accurate, but if so, my understanding of what Beasts is about is very, very wrong.

(It's almost funny, I meant to listen to Poirot's Christmas last week, but didn't.)

... Huh!

This is not a rec from any platform, but I'm plopping it here anyway, because this thread is a huge pile of things that don't fit.

I periodically search Storytel for certain authors, to see if anything new has been added. Every single time I search "Bujold", to see if they have the latest Penric audio, I see, among books by Lois McMaster Bujold, this:

A Hankering for Lettuce and Other Stories by Lara Bujold Clouden

I'm starting to think I should read it. It still makes me laugh when I see it, so maybe it's not time yet?

Well at least it’s genre fiction. That title is priceless though. I don’t think I’ve ever had a hankering for lettuce, though.

Anything with the name Hank in it should really get a bump up on the list right?

lol Hank :D There are also these Hank book for kids, I forget the exact names, let me find them, hold on, don't go anywhere, one more second... found it! The series is called Here's Hank, starting with Bookmarks Are People Too! I don't know why, but these show up in my Storytel recs all the time. Probably Hank trying to get everyone to read more Hank books!

Diane, I might've hankered after lettuce once or twice in my life, but I must admit that it's not a very common occurence.

I am also quite fond of The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog

"Because you read Sinuhe, The Egyptian (in its original Finnish), you'd probably want to sink your teeth into all of this Persian literature":








:(

(I would actually; if only the language barrier was as malleable as GR likes to think).

LOL!!

And I was laughing out loud in Persian, in case you couldn't understand :)

Michelle wrote: "And I was laughing out loud in Persian, in case you couldn't understand :)"

لول 🙃?

This one actually makes a bit of sense to me, because the default edition of Sinuhe is the Persian one. I remember when I first joined GR, noticed it, and thought it was all kinds of wrong. I still think the default edition should always be the original language one, but I can no longer be bothered to care about GR's mysterious ways.

(I've been thinking of rereading Sinuhe, was it still good?)

edit: corrected from Arabic to Persian, I remembered wrong!

Anna wrote: "This one actually makes a bit of sense to me, because the default edition of Sinuhe is the Persian one..."

Yeah, I think you're right. I noticed that too, looking for the English edition, that for some odd reason Sinuhe's default entry is the Persian edition ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It *is* rather nice, that GR encourages to consider other languages with 'reckless' recommendations like these 🙃

Anna wrote: "...(I've been thinking of rereading Sinuhe, was it still good?)..."

Hmmm... it was fine. Read a lot more satiric, than I would've expected.

😂😂😂

"Because you enjoyed The Steerswoman:


I Shall Master this Family, Season 1
(I Shall Master this Family (Webtoon) #1)
by Roah Kim, Ant Studio"

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed one or two Webtoon titles. But I'm failing to see obvious connections between a very science/evidence-minded SF book and a reincarnation/time-slip fantasy comic.

There's no telling, Beth.

Beth wrote: ""Because you enjoyed The Steerswoman:


I Shall Master this Family, Season 1
(I Shall Master this Family (Webtoon) #1)
by Roah..."

I had this recommendation recently on Amazon - made no sense to me there either

Because you enjoyed Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow (kids MG book)


You might enjoy
Postmortem by Patricia Daniels Cornwell


Yeahhhhhh I might but not because I read Hollowpox I'm sure lol

They also suggested Loveboat, Taipei
and
Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation

"Because you are currently reading I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter:



Because what I'm really looking for when I enjoy a book, is another one with a near-identical cover treatment.

I get weird stuff all the time, but the current one is one of the more bizarre ones:

"Because you are currently reading




Because when I am reading (but actually paused on months ago) a nonfiction book on singing pedagogy in case I were to start coaching beginners I want to read a novel about Facism's rise in Italy.

Beth wrote: "Because what I'm really looking for when I enjoy a book, is another one with a near-identical cover treatment."



lol.

To be fair, I wouldn't have noticed this cover in an audible promotional email at all if that GR recommendation hadn't happened.

Beth wrote: ""Because you are currently reading I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter:


[bookcover:The Book of Unknown Americans|1846..."

👀👀👀

Folks mistakenly got the incorrect book, and now GR thinks people would 'enjoy' one or the other if they got them mixed?

In the future can we maybe put the titles in textually because having to try and guess based on the cover is a little too much effort for a fun thread.