Back to reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire (first book in her October Daye urban fantasy series). Only read couple of pages, but things are setting down so should be getting back to reading more.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
Official Bingo Turn-in post is live!
Southern Man by Greg Iles, a late addendum to the Penn Cage series.
It’s risky to infer an author’s political leanings from their fiction, but there are exceptions. This was written and set in the 2024 election season, and is bluntly critical of Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters. No, I don’t think Iles got invited to Trump’s inauguration party.
As of yesterday I finished:
All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka: I thought this was really fun. I liked the book more than the Tom Cruise movie so now I’ll have to see what the anime movie is like. I have to admit that the whole “it’s not technically a time loop” explanation felt really over thought and it could have just been time loops. A good vacation read
Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash by Yahtzee Croshaw: Yahtzee is really good at his fundamentals. He knows how to fundamentally write a good story, produce a watchable YouTube video, and make engaging video game mechanics. His strength is in British comedy which in my opinion is usually best in written form because it allows for lengthy humorous asides. Well written with good twists and still very funny
Next up: Diaspora by Greg Egan and Will Leave the Galaxy for Good
The Final Architecture, by Tchaikovsky
Just finished:
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Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
Currently reading:
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The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes
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The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang
Really enjoyed The Spear Cuts Through Water when I read it last year. Great world building, and the tone was just lovely.
What’d you think of Strife compared to the other 3? I liked 1 and 2 quite a bit but 3 felt like a wrong direction to take for me
On the one hand, it covers a broader stretch of time—from slightly before to slightly after the rest of the series—but on the other hand it’s more human-centric, with less exploration of new non-human intelligences (although there’s still some). And like book 3, it focuses more on a single planet (but also more of Earth than we’ve seen in the rest of the series).
I’d put in on par with 3, but I liked 3 more than a lot of other readers did.
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Love Among the Chickens by P.G. Wodehouse. About 3/4 of the way through and the density of clever lines has eased up to make room for plot, which is good, because I want to see how it all works out (or doesn’t).
Just started ‘The Gravedigger’s Almanac’ by Oliver Potzch [translated by Lisa Reinhardt]
Serial killer in 1890’s Vienna being tracked by a gravedigger/amateur scientist.
Also, if you like Seanan McGuire, try Tanith Lee. “Red As Blood” is a short story collection where the princesses are evil, and ‘Night’s Master’ has an Arabian Nights style demon as the hero.
I just finished The Philosophy of the catcher in the rye - super interesting, really enjoyed it.
Reading; Red Comment, Heather Clark - biography of Sylvia Plath. Thoroughly enjoying it, though “enjoying” feels like the wrong word due to the heavy topics it goes into.
Also reading Animorphs K.A Applegate. Nostalgic read and a nice, easy one to pick up when I need something less intense. Up to the 12th book!
And a couple of poetry books on the go; Beautiful Chaos - Robert Drake (eh, it’s okay), All Dogs Are Good - Courtney Peppernell (fantastic! Will definitely read more of her stuff!) and Ariel - Sylvia Plath (a re-read as I know most of them already but interesting to read with the extra insight of the biography).
I’ve been thinking of doing an Animorphs read again. I read them as a kid and I remember really enjoying them but I haven’t read them since. They were one of the books that made me fall in love with science fiction.
Yeah I remember reading and watching it as a kid but I don’t think I ever read or saw all of it so I’m excited to actually see how it develops beyond what I remember! I’m not particularly into sci fi but I did like the teenage alien invasion era back in the 90s/2000s haha.
I wish I still had the alien story I was writing in old exercise books during class, one of the longest handwritten stories I wrote as a kid and sadly disappeared 😭
I was already interested in scifi shows because my mom is a Star Trek and Star Wars fan, but Animorphs is what really got me more into it. The show was interesting, I remember it being a bit weird, however I am in the process of downloading it to rewatch. I see the books all the time in thrift stores and I’m tempted to start collecting them for a reread, but I’ve yet to find the first one.
I hope you are enjoying your other books too!
Just got caught up with the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and desperately awaiting book 8. I’m not a fan of LitRPG but hot damn it hits different.
Meanwhile I’m working my way through the Sun Eater series. Super morose and way *too full of self-reflection but it’s definitely grabbed my attention. and kept me wanting more.
Still reading “Newtons wake” by Ken MacLeod. It’s okay, sometimes a bit messy to follow. Definitely not as bad as some of the goodreads reviews make it be. It’s my first book by this writer, so maybe I’ll read some more after this one.
I’m currently reading the third novella in Radicalized, a collection by Cory Doctorow. It’s chilling stuff, especially this third one.
Finished Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio - Best book in the series by a country mile. I’m a sucker for despair and KoD has tons of it.
Currently trudging through Non-Things by Byung Chul Han. I get what it’s trying to say. The delivery is horrible. It’s not even a translation thing. It’s the way he’s presenting his ideas through example after example from other literary works. Tangent after tangent. Such and so thought this and this guy said that but I present this thing and this is because in [X99] we did this. Like whoa buddy stay on track for a second. I do want to finish it. It’s only 100 something pages. It’s feeling like a DNF though.
Currently Chaos Vector by Megan E. O’Keefe. Great book just not a lot of time to read
This past weekend was the annual book crawl in my city, also celebrating Independent Bookstore Day. I visited 15 bookstores on Saturday and won a championship mug. I was the first grand price winner for the store I finished at, yay! It’s the 4th mug I’ve won out of 5 years participating. I bought way more books than I intended but who can say no to $2 Star Trek books? Not this lady!
Finished The Cadaver Client by Frank Tuttle. Fantasy PI is hired by a ghost to find his (living) wife. Fun adventure, pretty light; good palate cleanser after 1984.
Currently reading Extremity by Nicholas Binge. I’m a little unsatisfied with it, but I think it’s a me-not-it kinda thing. Maybe the last 30% will change my mind.
Just about to finish The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden. It’s been good! Very beautifully written and such a unique setting (post war Netherlands). I’ve been reading it for my book club.
I’m thinking on starting The Lies of Locke Lamora next. It’s been on my TBR for a while!
I recently revisited some classic novels:
The Stranger, by Albert Camus Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
A lot of meaning flew over my head when I originally read these as a teenager.
