![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wednesday Reading Meme July 10 2024
Jul. 10th, 2024 05:00 pmWhat I’ve Read:
I swear that I had written up my reading for the week last week, but apparently not.
Also, recently, the idea that writers are talented human beings and prone to all the evils that comes with – yeah, it’s on my mind. To quote a reader I respect: “No gods, no heroes, no idols.” – Not even American Gods. https://www.tiktok.com/@sadbeige/video/7388683241676475691
The Spear Cuts Through Water - Simon Jimenez – Very much enjoyed this book – it’s highly vibes based, in that there’s a story set in a dream and that story is sometimes a play or sometimes a story the narrator is remembering from their grandmother and sometimes it’s a straightforward narrative. It’s sometimes a myth, sometimes a love story, sometimes a stupid caper, but the vibes of the story clearly bring the whole story in to focus
Leviathan Wakes – James SA Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck collaborate - The Expanse #1) – I’m torn – on the one hand, the two POV characters got progressively more annoying as it became clear that Miller is basically a noir detective and Holden feels like a self-indulgent fantasy of moral righteousness. The story was interesting enough! The worldbuilding was complex and fascinating and I HEARTILY love stories that remember wars don’t have to be two-sided. It was just irksome to have see this world thru their eyes. I might give the show a chance, or read the next book b/c that sounds like it has women POV characters in it. But while I found a lot of this story very compelling, it was significantly more boring about women than I previously thought. (Update, one week later: I tried listening to the audiobook of book two and I realized that I could not stand to read anything more by men this year.)
Bea Wolf - Zach Weinersmith – (Hugo Nominee – Best Graphic Novel) I actually had started reading this the day I got knee surgery and it was a lovely refreshing thing. It has the flavor of a translations of Beowulf, in that its modern English using forms that are atypical for modern English writing, and also it’s focused on children under 10. It’s fantastically illustrated and overblown – it absolutely feels like it’s both a great adaptation of Beowulf and a book that child could read and feel like they were taken seriously. Highly recommend.
Saga, Vol. 11 - Brian K. Vaughan – (Hugo Nominee for Best Graphic Novel) Last year I read Saga 1-10 in a blitz as part of Hugos Deathrace 2023, so I am up to date on these but not in the first flush of warm fuzzies about this. I get the sense that this story has a planned ending that is being set up, with Hazel telling her life story to someone, and I am hopeful that it all comes together by the planned ending of 108 issues. Collecting issues 61-66, Vol 11 definitely feels like a middle bit of floundering – the story has a lot of characters at this point (the main character and her mom, the Will, Petrichor, the gay fish men) and all of them have appearance and developments. (Spoilers in Rot13) Gur qrngu bs Znexb onpx va Ibyhzr Avar really changed the focus and while that might work out really great, I am less engaged with the current cast than when the comic started. Not my main contender for the Hugo, tho here are Volumes that would merit it!
Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland – Audiobook with Casey Jones – Re-reading this via audiobook was whim – it came in from the library! I am simple creature! I really enjoyed it in hardback and I really enjoy the audiobook. Casey Jones is NAILING the whiney wet cat voice for Avra. This book was comedic, passionate, and had a momentum that just built and built, tying the beginning of the book to its end in an almost inevitable rush. I love Rowland’s work and this is my current favorite.
What I’m Reading:
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi -Novel by S. A. Chakraborty – (Hugos and Xing) Just started the audiobook (Narrated by Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal) and I am looking forward to another pirate story. I like the historical tone and the two narrators being very different!
Mo Dao Zu Shi - Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – Part 5 – 23% - No movement
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 31% (aka 9%of audiobook #2)- static
What I’ll Read Next
Some Desperate Glory - Xing
Space Between Worlds – Neocromancer’s Book Club
Fugitive Telemetry -Xing
Hugo Nominees:
Translation State Starter Villain “Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition” “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” “On the Fox Roads” “One Man’s Treasure” “The Year Without Sunshine” I AM AI Rose/House “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet” The Mimicking of Known Successes Mammoths at the Gates “Seeds of Mercury” The Culture: The Drawings A City on Mars A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, All These Worlds: Reviews & Essays “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023) “Answerless Journey” / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, “The Sound of Children Screaming” “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” “The Mausoleum’s Children”
I swear that I had written up my reading for the week last week, but apparently not.
Also, recently, the idea that writers are talented human beings and prone to all the evils that comes with – yeah, it’s on my mind. To quote a reader I respect: “No gods, no heroes, no idols.” – Not even American Gods. https://www.tiktok.com/@sadbeige/video/7388683241676475691
The Spear Cuts Through Water - Simon Jimenez – Very much enjoyed this book – it’s highly vibes based, in that there’s a story set in a dream and that story is sometimes a play or sometimes a story the narrator is remembering from their grandmother and sometimes it’s a straightforward narrative. It’s sometimes a myth, sometimes a love story, sometimes a stupid caper, but the vibes of the story clearly bring the whole story in to focus
Leviathan Wakes – James SA Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck collaborate - The Expanse #1) – I’m torn – on the one hand, the two POV characters got progressively more annoying as it became clear that Miller is basically a noir detective and Holden feels like a self-indulgent fantasy of moral righteousness. The story was interesting enough! The worldbuilding was complex and fascinating and I HEARTILY love stories that remember wars don’t have to be two-sided. It was just irksome to have see this world thru their eyes. I might give the show a chance, or read the next book b/c that sounds like it has women POV characters in it. But while I found a lot of this story very compelling, it was significantly more boring about women than I previously thought. (Update, one week later: I tried listening to the audiobook of book two and I realized that I could not stand to read anything more by men this year.)
Bea Wolf - Zach Weinersmith – (Hugo Nominee – Best Graphic Novel) I actually had started reading this the day I got knee surgery and it was a lovely refreshing thing. It has the flavor of a translations of Beowulf, in that its modern English using forms that are atypical for modern English writing, and also it’s focused on children under 10. It’s fantastically illustrated and overblown – it absolutely feels like it’s both a great adaptation of Beowulf and a book that child could read and feel like they were taken seriously. Highly recommend.
Saga, Vol. 11 - Brian K. Vaughan – (Hugo Nominee for Best Graphic Novel) Last year I read Saga 1-10 in a blitz as part of Hugos Deathrace 2023, so I am up to date on these but not in the first flush of warm fuzzies about this. I get the sense that this story has a planned ending that is being set up, with Hazel telling her life story to someone, and I am hopeful that it all comes together by the planned ending of 108 issues. Collecting issues 61-66, Vol 11 definitely feels like a middle bit of floundering – the story has a lot of characters at this point (the main character and her mom, the Will, Petrichor, the gay fish men) and all of them have appearance and developments. (Spoilers in Rot13) Gur qrngu bs Znexb onpx va Ibyhzr Avar really changed the focus and while that might work out really great, I am less engaged with the current cast than when the comic started. Not my main contender for the Hugo, tho here are Volumes that would merit it!
Running Close to the Wind - Alexandra Rowland – Audiobook with Casey Jones – Re-reading this via audiobook was whim – it came in from the library! I am simple creature! I really enjoyed it in hardback and I really enjoy the audiobook. Casey Jones is NAILING the whiney wet cat voice for Avra. This book was comedic, passionate, and had a momentum that just built and built, tying the beginning of the book to its end in an almost inevitable rush. I love Rowland’s work and this is my current favorite.
What I’m Reading:
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi -Novel by S. A. Chakraborty – (Hugos and Xing) Just started the audiobook (Narrated by Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal) and I am looking forward to another pirate story. I like the historical tone and the two narrators being very different!
Mo Dao Zu Shi - Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Mo Xiang Tong Xiu – Part 5 – 23% - No movement
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – 31% (aka 9%of audiobook #2)- static
What I’ll Read Next
Some Desperate Glory - Xing
Space Between Worlds – Neocromancer’s Book Club
Fugitive Telemetry -Xing
Hugo Nominees:
Translation State Starter Villain “Introduction to 2181 Overture, Second Edition” “Ivy, Angelica, Bay” “On the Fox Roads” “One Man’s Treasure” “The Year Without Sunshine” I AM AI Rose/House “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet” The Mimicking of Known Successes Mammoths at the Gates “Seeds of Mercury” The Culture: The Drawings A City on Mars A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, All These Worlds: Reviews & Essays “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld May 2023) “Answerless Journey” / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, “The Sound of Children Screaming” “How to Raise a Kraken in Your Bathtub” “The Mausoleum’s Children”
