Thursday Tea: June 11

 Posted by Anastasia on June 11, 2009  No Responses »
Jun 112009
 

Thursday Tea Thursday Tea is a weekly meme hosted by yours truly. To play along, all you need is some tea, a book, and the will to answer some very simple questions: what tea are you drinking (and do you like it)? What book are you reading (and do you like it)? Tell us a little about your tea and your book, and whether or not the two go together.

The tea: I fell in love with Stash Tea‘s chai spice teas, and in my last tea spree I picked up some Chai White Tea. Here’s how it’s described on the website:

Chai is usually brewed very strong with lots of sugar and milk and often concentrated. Traditional Indian Chai combines rich black tea that is boiled in milk, and flavored with local spices such as sweet cinnamon, sharp clove, penetrating cardamom, and occasionally black peppercorns, pungent ginger and hot red chilies, and sweetened with sugar. This spicy tea is brewed in a samovar-type vessel and is always served very hot. Hurried customers often pour a little Chai in the saucer to cool it before drinking.

Chai White TeaStash White Chai tea is a lighter version of the traditional Chai. By blending premium white tea with cinnamon, whole cloves, cardamom, ginger root and cassia, we created a flavorful and spicy tea that goes well with milk and sugar and may be enjoyed any time of the day.

I like it, but I think it’s a little too light for me. I prefer something stronger, like the chai black teas.

The Last DaysThe book: I’m currently about halfway through Scott Westerfeld’s The Last Days. It’s a sequel to Peeps, and I actually like it a little better than I did Peeps. I still find the vampires seriously creepy and not at all attractive, which I think is an accomplishment. Here’s the book’s summary from Amazon:

A mysterious epidemic holds the city in its thrall and the chaos is contagious—black oil spews from fire hydrants, rats have taken over Brooklyn, and every day, more people disappear. But all that matters to Pearl, Moz, and Zahler is their new band. They ignore the madness around them and join forces with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end of the world…or summon it?

Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Peeps, The Last Days is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.

Do they go together? I don’t really think so. The Last Days would go better with something stronger and more unusual in flavor, like this Blood Orange Tea (which I do have, actually).

What are you drinking/reading this Thursday?

Jun 112009
 

Only HumanOnly Human by Tom Holt
Publication: Little, Brown Book Group (December 1, 2004), Paperback, 352 pages / ISBN 1857239490
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:
Find @ Amazon or IndieBound

In one sentence: Slightly disappointing but hilarious fantasy book that’d be best read on a rainy afternoon.

I first heard about Only Human from…somewhere. I, er, don’t remember. I do know it’s been on my BookMooch wishlist for about three or four months, so imagine my surprise when someone posted it! Yay! Unfortunately, while I did enjoy reading it, it wasn’t as good as I was hoping (or expecting).

Summary from Amazon:

Something is about to go wrong. Very wrong. What do you expect if the Supreme Being decides to get away from it all for a few days, leaving his naturally inquisitive son to look after the cosmic balance of things? A minor hiccup with a human soul and a welding machine soon leads to a violent belch, and before you know it the human condition—not to mention the lemming condition—is tumbling down the slippery slope to chaos.

The humor in Only Human reminds me a lot of Terry Pratchett, but maybe with less puns and more surreality. It certainly made me laugh out loud a lot, and sometime the plot got so weird and fantastic I couldn’t do anything but go along with the ride.

I think I like Only Human mostly because of that surreality, and maybe also the fact that it takes inanimate objects and sticks their souls into humans. Um, hello? Seriously awesome idea! The characters are interesting and sympathetic, although maybe the inanimate objects more so than the already-human characters, and the story is equal parts fun and witty.

The whole “God acts like a human (and takes fishing trips) and humans are awesome, etc.” thing (if that even makes sense) seems a little dated to me, probably because I’ve seen it in so many other books/comicbooks/etc. that were published earlier than Only Human. However, I really enjoyed the political commentary more than the religious commentary. For instance, when the Prime Minister’s body is given to a lemming’s soul, the lemming proceeds to, of course, act lemming-like while everyone around him tries to act like nothing is wrong. Aha.

Still, some of the jokes and such fall a little flat or are too obvious, and while I had fun reading it I think Only Human suffers from slightly mediocre writing (or maybe plot). I’d recommend it if you like humorous books set around deities, Prime Ministers, or self-aware computers– or even if you have a lazy Saturday afternoon to slaughter.

Other reviews: Have you read this book? Leave a link to your review and I’ll include it in this post!

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