April 2023 Wrap-Up! | Ol' Ran'all Edition! 

The John Williams cut aways get me every time 🤣

Sounds like you had a great month, Allen!

April, huh? Best book in April for me was The Folding Knife.

The Malevolent Seven and Blade of Dream were two of my most anticipated releases, so I love that they both have the Allen seal of approval. Also, that Rome trip livestream sounds like it was a blast!!

I will definitely be reading Brant Hanson’s book. I think we all need a re-set from time to time. 😊

I have no idea how the new Castell fell through the cracks for me. Seems like it came out of nowhere and I didn't even schedule it. Derp.

Glad you had an awesome reading month! Hope this continues!

The Hansen book sounds great! Thanks for the recommendation! Abraham is already on the TBR - anything of his is automatic for me after reading LPQ.

Not on topic ,but wanted to let you know that my wife and I have been listening to Jeopardy episodes every time we go on a road trip, starting from the beginning!

While it wasn't my top fave of the month, I did finish A Shadow in Summer and I LOVED it!! I am so happy I gave it a chance. I'm going to try to finish all 4 before getting to Kithomar, but the more you've talked about it the more I'd like to get to Age of Ash before July. I think Abraham will end up being another fave for me!

This sounds like a great month. I really need to try De Castell

Oh cool, I definitely want to check out Unoffendable now. I'm in the middle of Soul Boom by Rainn Wilson and really digging the conversation of spirituality/religion in our modern world.

In April I finished «Gurzil» by I, Anonymous (Self-Pub inspired by Arthurian Myth with Biblical and Historical elements), «The Way of Edan» by our dear Professor Philip Chase (Loved the many nods to real life history and myths, Tolkien, Le Guin, Robert Jordan, Lloyd Alexander etc.: The Wizard Galdor in ElLond=Galdor, member of ElRond’s Council as representative of the Grey Havens: I see what the Good Professor did there😉! Orvandil in King Earconwald’s hall “Sigseld”: Beowulf in King Hrothgar’s Hall “Heorot”. Chase mentioning “Beowulf”: “I’m shocked, shocked I tell you!» 😂 And I loved the nods to "Beowulf", the tale of Kullervo from the "Kalevala" and Wagner's "Ring Cycle" about the heroes Seigfried and Brunhilde, in the in-universe story of Wilfar and Aelfscyn!), «The Farthest Shore» by Ursula Le Guin (Book 3# in the «Earthsea» series, I was inspired to read it after finishing «Way of Edan» and «In the Grip of the Minotaur» last month), «Ghost Fleet» by PW Singer and August Cole (Tech Thriller of a potential future war between China and USA, with Chinese occupation of Hawaii and US resistance fighters) and «The Years» by Annie Ernaux (A paragraph-mosaic book of the Nobel Prize Winner’s memories from the 1940’s to the 2000’s, with personal experiences mixed with her experience of larger cultural and political events). May the Lord lift up His face to you, and give you peace, Brother!

I've never had a high opinion of Kevin Costner's acting, and yet most of his films are really good, so the guy must have some kind of talent. I even liked Waterworld. Sort of.

Wow, April was packed. Get over it was fun. We should do more of them.

Late to the party here, my bad. But anyways, just wanted to let you know that you've really sold me on wanting to read John Williams (**insert JP music). I thought I would start with Stoner until you described Butcher's Crossing. Definitely adding to my TBR, and hoping to get to it within the next month or two. Ill come back and thank you afterwards

Books should start with an extra half-star just for being under 300 pages IMO

Long Price sadly didn’t click for me (got two books in) but I really want to try Kithamar or Dagger and the Coin. I have a feeling Abraham could still win me over.

I will check out Unoffendable! Thanks! :)

I’ve drank the Abraham cool-aid. I agree, he has characters react in ways you wouldn’t expect but at the same time seem completely reasonable. It doesn’t feel like he’s just trying to get one over on you

Need to try de Castell. My favourites were Guns of the Dawn, and the Lady Trent series 😊 (the second Trent has vibes of Dawn being set in a ‘swamp’).

You have me so hyped to try out the Kithamar series! Such an intriguing narrative structure!

Woah what an amazing month for you Allen! I can't wait to read Knife of Dream. After I read that I'm hitting up Dagger & Coin finally. I'm due for a re-read of LPQ it's been a while. -Cheers

I am arch-grateful for the clips always Im excited to give Kithamar another shot!

I thought you might want to know that RU-vid automatic captions correctly identified the movie clip with "[Dinosaurs bellowing]" 😂😂😂

I love the Brant and Sherri Oddcasts!!! I’ve been listening since I was a teenager! I read unoffendable a couple of years ago and it was very convicting!! I need to get to his other books😁

Love the Oddcast and have read nearly all Brants books too! Can't wait for Blade of Dream!

I love Hatfield and McCoy! I haven't seen it since release but I do own it and now I'm gonna try to get my husband to watch it with me!

That podcast you mentioned sounds interesting. And yes I agree about bringing people to Christ. Although God is there to listen to our prayers about our anger and killing our enemies😂. David does a lot of that in Psalms

I’m happy we got to read Butcher’s Crossing together! The anger topic is interesting as it relates to Christianity and other religions. Of course, I loved the John Williams Jurassic Park and “arch-grateful” inserts in this video. 😂

Always get me hyped to read Abraham! Sounds like ill love him and the monarchies of god sounds right up my street too. Hope you are well good sir!

Can't wait for an in-depth video on Monarchies of The Gods as it sounds very intriguing to me and I'm burning to continue on my journey with the LPQ before diving into Dagger & Coin and Kithamar. Sarah Reads told me Dagger & Coin is different enough from LPQ to read it side by side, which I think I might do as I can read it physically unlike LPQ (though I loved that first book so much, at this point I need to force myself to pick that Kindle up again 🥴). I'm also a Christian and will definitely check out Brant Henson. I'd like to know more about Aspergers' perspective, especially since I know or I've met quite a few people who have this condition. An asperger female acquaintance of mine suggested a book - only in French for now - literally called "Behind The Glass Wall" in which the author, Marie Josée Cordeau, talks about her life in a world where she only learned she had autism at 45. She told me it was a very impactful read and I found that it even won a prize in 2014 from the Quebec Federation For Autism (I'm French-Canadian). I had read that high-functioning autistic people have a different experience whether they're male or female. Females tend to mask more. If that's true, I might have to read a male perspective as well, so the author you mentioned might be a good place to start.

Haha, I'm still thinking about Get Over It 😂

I've seen "Hatfields & McCoys" years ago, but in italian. It was really good. "Butcher's crossing" has been recently re-published in Italy, unfortunately with an awful cover, and I will read it soon.

Close to the end of April - isn’t this close to the end of May? Have a lost a month 😱😱😱

Well said, Allen. Decades ago Gandhi said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”

The John Williams clip never gets old