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Reading Journal Jan 23 2025
How are folks doing? It's been a fucking week. I hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves.
I had a nice weekend! I went to a scifi/fantasy convention and got some great new book suggestions and I have a great deal of hope and faith in the kindness of people restored. The world is not all bad - sometimes people invite you to hit things with swords and tell you about how terrible most Jules Verne translations are.
What I’ve Read
Marked in Trust – Marchling – https://archiveofourown.org/series/2317160
This is a re-read of a long and thorny recovery fic. A soulmates AU to the first Fast and Furious movie, teenage Brian gets sprung from juvie into the care of his newly found soulmate, Dominic – only Brian absolutely hates the idea of soulmates and never wanted to meet Dom, much less live with him. It’s slow, there’s multiple 100K stories in this series, I’m re-reading the ones I already knew, including….
Bound in Love – Marchling - #2 in the series – https://archiveofourown.org/works/32662693 No way to talk about it without spoiler for the first fic, but slow and detailed and an excellent re-read.
Return of the King – Tolkien, narrated by Robert Inglis. Oh, wow the ending of this snuck up on me – I didn’t realize the audiobook would include all the appendices, so I wasn’t prepared! I ended up crying – the book is so much kinder and more interested in Frodo and his suffering, it feels a little absurd that the epic fantasy genre has just left the hobbits behind. This is a war story that happens to be in a fantasy world, and like all war stories, no happy ending could be anything but bittersweet. Deeply touching, entirely worth it, I’m going to punch Peter Jackson in the back of the head if I ever get the chance.
Catwings – Ursula Le Guin – Picked up a copy of this childhood favorite at a stall at a con! I didn’t realize how much of the book I would still have memorized. A joy to re-read.
City of Brass – Shannon Chakraborty – It’s not a bad story, I think but there’s just too much book in this book. The worldbuilding is clearly really engaging to the author, and I don’t think it’s bad, but the interesting political bits of the plot were immensely slow to develop. It’s also the first book in a trilogy and the book ends on a cliffhanger that doesn’t really bring a conclusion to it. So, I suspect I will read on just to see what happens. It would be manageable if it were a little bit funny or more fun to read.
What I’m Reading
California Bones – I picked up a short story by Greg Van Eekhout in a magazine (Uncanny or Clarksworld, not sure) and it made me want to pick up this book that I have had on my To Read List – Someone on Dreamwidth liked it, can’t recall who but thanks for the rec!
Strange Practice –Vivian Shaw – Xing Book Club -This is probably good but the Englishness of the audiobook narrator, but I’m not having a great time. It’s meh.
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%
What I’ll Read Next
Long Live Evil
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Kingdom of Copper
Empire of Gold
How are folks doing? It's been a fucking week. I hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves.
I had a nice weekend! I went to a scifi/fantasy convention and got some great new book suggestions and I have a great deal of hope and faith in the kindness of people restored. The world is not all bad - sometimes people invite you to hit things with swords and tell you about how terrible most Jules Verne translations are.
What I’ve Read
Marked in Trust – Marchling – https://archiveofourown.org/series/2317160
This is a re-read of a long and thorny recovery fic. A soulmates AU to the first Fast and Furious movie, teenage Brian gets sprung from juvie into the care of his newly found soulmate, Dominic – only Brian absolutely hates the idea of soulmates and never wanted to meet Dom, much less live with him. It’s slow, there’s multiple 100K stories in this series, I’m re-reading the ones I already knew, including….
Bound in Love – Marchling - #2 in the series – https://archiveofourown.org/works/32662693 No way to talk about it without spoiler for the first fic, but slow and detailed and an excellent re-read.
Return of the King – Tolkien, narrated by Robert Inglis. Oh, wow the ending of this snuck up on me – I didn’t realize the audiobook would include all the appendices, so I wasn’t prepared! I ended up crying – the book is so much kinder and more interested in Frodo and his suffering, it feels a little absurd that the epic fantasy genre has just left the hobbits behind. This is a war story that happens to be in a fantasy world, and like all war stories, no happy ending could be anything but bittersweet. Deeply touching, entirely worth it, I’m going to punch Peter Jackson in the back of the head if I ever get the chance.
Catwings – Ursula Le Guin – Picked up a copy of this childhood favorite at a stall at a con! I didn’t realize how much of the book I would still have memorized. A joy to re-read.
City of Brass – Shannon Chakraborty – It’s not a bad story, I think but there’s just too much book in this book. The worldbuilding is clearly really engaging to the author, and I don’t think it’s bad, but the interesting political bits of the plot were immensely slow to develop. It’s also the first book in a trilogy and the book ends on a cliffhanger that doesn’t really bring a conclusion to it. So, I suspect I will read on just to see what happens. It would be manageable if it were a little bit funny or more fun to read.
What I’m Reading
California Bones – I picked up a short story by Greg Van Eekhout in a magazine (Uncanny or Clarksworld, not sure) and it made me want to pick up this book that I have had on my To Read List – Someone on Dreamwidth liked it, can’t recall who but thanks for the rec!
Strange Practice –Vivian Shaw – Xing Book Club -This is probably good but the Englishness of the audiobook narrator, but I’m not having a great time. It’s meh.
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%
What I’ll Read Next
Long Live Evil
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Kingdom of Copper
Empire of Gold
