Wednesday Reading Meme for March 8 2023
Mar. 8th, 2023 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishWhat I've Read
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - It only took me like a month, but man, this was a strange and wonderful book. I enjoyed the hell out of it, not only because of the group reading experience, but also because it's just a deeply weird book story that is allowed to be weird. I suspect this one will be slightly more sensible on the re-read, which I am planning to do in the fall, before the final book of the series comes out.
Phoenix Extravagant - Yoon Ha Lee - Xing book club - A very tightly focused fantasy. The main character is an artist in an occupied country and art just became incredibly valuable to the occupying forces (for reasons that are very fantastical). It has some great psychic animal friend vibes, some really good complicated sibling relationships, and some complicated romances with people who have allegiances to both sides of the conflict.
What I'm Reading
Ke'bajuri, or: Annotations on A Comprehensive Analysis and Guide to Fettish Bodies and Behaviors by Trudemaethien - Kinky and fun Star Wars clone romp, sometimes dealing with some harsh stuff, emotionally complex. Zoomed thru like 80% of this over the weekend.
True Colors (Star Wars: Republic Commando #3) Karen Traviss - A bit scattershot, I'm mostly reading this to get the canon under my belt since some of the characters are showing up in the Bad Batch cartoon.
A Half-Built Garden - Ruthanna Emrys - Xing Book club - Jewish lesbian mom in a realistic but not dystopian future of Earth meets aliens who have strong opinions about humans making their way to the stars. It's being compared to LeGuin bc it's hard scifi with a woman protagonist and a good eye for cultural stuff but it's not really feeling like LeGuin to me yet - LeGuin really seems to like letting characters realize they have made fundamental mistakes and mischaracterizations based on culture and their past in ways that are deep and unavoidable, and while that's still a possibility for this book, I haven't seen that quite yet. It's interesting and well written, tho, so it could stick the landing!
Nona the Ninth -Tamsyn Muir - Somehow, this book has a protagonist who is even less prepared for the act of narration than any of Muir's other pov characters, which is saying something. So far, it's pretty linear and comprehensible, so I'm sure I'm missing something. I like the narrator on the audiobook I got.
Men with Stakes: Masculinity and the Gothic in US Television - Julia M. Wright - on hold bc this weekend is going to be bonkers.
What I'll Read Next
Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, andSusanna Clarke's Pirenesi, California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, True Colors by Karen Traviss, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon, Alisha Rai Partners in Crime, the Right Swipe, Aphorisms of Kerishdar
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - It only took me like a month, but man, this was a strange and wonderful book. I enjoyed the hell out of it, not only because of the group reading experience, but also because it's just a deeply weird book story that is allowed to be weird. I suspect this one will be slightly more sensible on the re-read, which I am planning to do in the fall, before the final book of the series comes out.
Phoenix Extravagant - Yoon Ha Lee - Xing book club - A very tightly focused fantasy. The main character is an artist in an occupied country and art just became incredibly valuable to the occupying forces (for reasons that are very fantastical). It has some great psychic animal friend vibes, some really good complicated sibling relationships, and some complicated romances with people who have allegiances to both sides of the conflict.
What I'm Reading
Ke'bajuri, or: Annotations on A Comprehensive Analysis and Guide to Fettish Bodies and Behaviors by Trudemaethien - Kinky and fun Star Wars clone romp, sometimes dealing with some harsh stuff, emotionally complex. Zoomed thru like 80% of this over the weekend.
True Colors (Star Wars: Republic Commando #3) Karen Traviss - A bit scattershot, I'm mostly reading this to get the canon under my belt since some of the characters are showing up in the Bad Batch cartoon.
A Half-Built Garden - Ruthanna Emrys - Xing Book club - Jewish lesbian mom in a realistic but not dystopian future of Earth meets aliens who have strong opinions about humans making their way to the stars. It's being compared to LeGuin bc it's hard scifi with a woman protagonist and a good eye for cultural stuff but it's not really feeling like LeGuin to me yet - LeGuin really seems to like letting characters realize they have made fundamental mistakes and mischaracterizations based on culture and their past in ways that are deep and unavoidable, and while that's still a possibility for this book, I haven't seen that quite yet. It's interesting and well written, tho, so it could stick the landing!
Nona the Ninth -Tamsyn Muir - Somehow, this book has a protagonist who is even less prepared for the act of narration than any of Muir's other pov characters, which is saying something. So far, it's pretty linear and comprehensible, so I'm sure I'm missing something. I like the narrator on the audiobook I got.
Men with Stakes: Masculinity and the Gothic in US Television - Julia M. Wright - on hold bc this weekend is going to be bonkers.
What I'll Read Next
Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and
