Mostly I'm putting this link here so I will have it in the future

Here is why I hate Song of Ice and Fire: http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/08/26/enter-ye-myne-mystic-world-of-gayng-raype-what-the-r-stands-for-in-george-r-r-martin/. What the essay doesn't cover, the comments do. Like that my god the series is just plain structured terribly.  

And now for something completely different...

I just finished reading an Ellis Peters book I'd never read before. I've been reading too much crap and too little good stuff lately. The feeling of reading something well-written, well-imagined, with good, nuanced characters whom the author enjoyed writing... aah. Peters loved femininity, she loved masculinity, she loved "other", she loved people. Brother Cadfael's world is probably not 100% authentic, but it's authentic enough to be coherent and have the right feel. This is what it's supposed to be about. I figured out who the murderer was before they even committed the crime, but that wasn't the true mystery of the book anyway.