Wednesday Reading Meme - March 22, 2023
Mar. 22nd, 2023 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishWhat I've Read
Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, I really enjoyed this book. Partially because I finally got to the point in the series where I feel like all the players might, at last, be on the board, and we can finally see how they are all interacting.
There was so much love and so much sorrow in this book. I have so many points that I adored and I want to keep spoilers off people's main pages, but I might get into it in the comments. Nona was just such a lovely character to visit with and I'm glad that the trilogy expanded to give her enough space.
The bits with John going over his background and how he got to the place he is - that was fascinating and got the most discussion of any part of the books in the discord I was chatting with people about. I really adored the whole thing. And now I join the multitude waiting for the final book.
Penric's Mission - Lois McMaster Bujold - This was the palate cleanser after burning thru three of the Locked Tomb books in short order. Little did I realize, I actually skipped one novella in between! I might go back to it, but honestly, I liked the twists on Penric's future and Desdemona's new friends in this story, and I might not circle back.
Men with Stakes: Masculinity and the Gothic in US TV - Julia M. Wright - I picked this to read as part of the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch and while I think it was a good review of a number of shows and cogent points about the genre's relationship to masculinity, I found the writing distracting. There was no clear line between argumentation and summary, I felt like "the Gothic" was never actually defined, and overall, I feel like I would have gotten more out of this book if I had read some of the essasy in the bibliography before I started on this. Not a failure, just not quite where I wanted the next step in my journey to go.
A Half-Built Garden - Ruthanna Emrys - For the Xing Book Club and I really enjoyed this. It was clearly written by someone who loved Star Trek and science fiction and it's a loving addition to that canon. The author's note called the book "diaperpunk" which I sort of agree with - this is science fiction where "think of the children" is not an empty proverb, but tied to specific children, with specific parents and a specific place in time and humanity's history.
It's also, I have previously noted, a book where main character being Jewish has real impacts for how they interact with aliens. At one point, a character thinks, Man, am I going to end up in some future scornful halakhic commentary for the decision I am making about this alien's ritual? and I am delighted. Aliens at passover! Chametz in space! Kashrut on a floating constructed island run by AI!
What I'm Reading
True Colors - Karen Traviss - Have slowed down on this but the fanfic consumption is not slower.
What I'll Read Next
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke -Xing book club
Edit to add: Powers of Horror by Julia Kristeva
Dowry of Blood
Too Like the Lightning - Audiobook, maybe
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
Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, I really enjoyed this book. Partially because I finally got to the point in the series where I feel like all the players might, at last, be on the board, and we can finally see how they are all interacting.
There was so much love and so much sorrow in this book. I have so many points that I adored and I want to keep spoilers off people's main pages, but I might get into it in the comments. Nona was just such a lovely character to visit with and I'm glad that the trilogy expanded to give her enough space.
The bits with John going over his background and how he got to the place he is - that was fascinating and got the most discussion of any part of the books in the discord I was chatting with people about. I really adored the whole thing. And now I join the multitude waiting for the final book.
Penric's Mission - Lois McMaster Bujold - This was the palate cleanser after burning thru three of the Locked Tomb books in short order. Little did I realize, I actually skipped one novella in between! I might go back to it, but honestly, I liked the twists on Penric's future and Desdemona's new friends in this story, and I might not circle back.
Men with Stakes: Masculinity and the Gothic in US TV - Julia M. Wright - I picked this to read as part of the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch and while I think it was a good review of a number of shows and cogent points about the genre's relationship to masculinity, I found the writing distracting. There was no clear line between argumentation and summary, I felt like "the Gothic" was never actually defined, and overall, I feel like I would have gotten more out of this book if I had read some of the essasy in the bibliography before I started on this. Not a failure, just not quite where I wanted the next step in my journey to go.
A Half-Built Garden - Ruthanna Emrys - For the Xing Book Club and I really enjoyed this. It was clearly written by someone who loved Star Trek and science fiction and it's a loving addition to that canon. The author's note called the book "diaperpunk" which I sort of agree with - this is science fiction where "think of the children" is not an empty proverb, but tied to specific children, with specific parents and a specific place in time and humanity's history.
It's also, I have previously noted, a book where main character being Jewish has real impacts for how they interact with aliens. At one point, a character thinks, Man, am I going to end up in some future scornful halakhic commentary for the decision I am making about this alien's ritual? and I am delighted. Aliens at passover! Chametz in space! Kashrut on a floating constructed island run by AI!
What I'm Reading
True Colors - Karen Traviss - Have slowed down on this but the fanfic consumption is not slower.
What I'll Read Next
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke -Xing book club
Edit to add: Powers of Horror by Julia Kristeva
Dowry of Blood
Too Like the Lightning - Audiobook, maybe
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and
