Wednesday Reading Meme March 12 2025
Mar. 12th, 2025 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitewithfishReading Journal for March 12 2025
I skipped a week? Which is weird bc I absolutely wrote up last weeks journal and then … never posted it. Life comes at you fast sometimes.
What I’ve Read
Conclave – Robert Harris – I picked this up after watching the movie, and I’m more and more impressed with how close the film kept the story line and how many of the book’s details would have not played well on screen. It’s a loving condemnation of the Roman Catholic leadership, and a very fun read. If you like the movie and are also into art or politics, I recommend it.
Amongst Dust Breathing Souls by Blackkat – Star Wars Clone Wars Era AU focused on a minor Jedi character from the movies called A’Sharad Hett - https://archiveofourown.org/works/55747861 This is just such a detailed and careful fic. Hett is a Tusken, and in the brief comics appearance he gets, he learns of Anakin’s massacre of a Tusken tribe but, because of plot, keeps the secret. This takes that canon event and fleshes out WHY you’d keep that secret, what the impact would be, and how much the process of changing your mind would take a vast effort of personal healing. Loved this. Unabashedly recommend this.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck – A novella about a man in a hell specifically for him – having followed the wrong religion in life (not Zoroastrianism), he is condemned to remain in a library of books until he finds his autobiography. It’s a strange book – the prose is very clear and embellished and it reminds me strongly of a Piranesi. It’s magical realism? I guess? I wasn’t annoyed at the book while I read it but I’m a bit miffed at it in retrospect – I think it could have gone deeper into the dark elements of the soul that it was trying to get into.
a star to steer by norcumi – a re-read ! I apparently have read this three times, and it remains an excellent and confusing work of fiction. A Star War Clone Wars fusion AU with Stargate – a really weird vision for both worlds, but what I really enjoy about this fic is the actual work of cultural exchange and mutual understanding that happens in this fic – sometimes messily! The characters from Stargate are largely unchanged from their TV show versions except the question if they’d encountered better allies earlier in the show, with more interest in helping them, and demanding that humans become more compassionate to the victims of the mind-controlling Stargate aliens.
Softer Arena Slave AU - https://archiveofourown.org/series/4025155 – a great Soulmates AU that focuses on Obi-Wan Kenobi, abandoned teenage Jedi, being found with Jango Fett’s soulmate mark – only not by Jango! Instead it’s Jaster Mereel, Jango’s adopted father, who assumed that Jango was dead until he saw the proof on Obi-Wan’s skin that Jango still lives! It’s a great story and very interested in Mandalorian culture.
What I’m Reading
City of Lies by Sam Hawke – 28% - I am technically re-reading this but have no actual knowledge of the book’s plot.
When the Dead Tree Flowers by Blackkat – Star Wars Clone Wars AU focused on minor EU character Granta Omega – God I love this and I really should finish it
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan – 40% ish
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
What I’ll Read Next
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian
I skipped a week? Which is weird bc I absolutely wrote up last weeks journal and then … never posted it. Life comes at you fast sometimes.
What I’ve Read
Conclave – Robert Harris – I picked this up after watching the movie, and I’m more and more impressed with how close the film kept the story line and how many of the book’s details would have not played well on screen. It’s a loving condemnation of the Roman Catholic leadership, and a very fun read. If you like the movie and are also into art or politics, I recommend it.
Amongst Dust Breathing Souls by Blackkat – Star Wars Clone Wars Era AU focused on a minor Jedi character from the movies called A’Sharad Hett - https://archiveofourown.org/works/55747861 This is just such a detailed and careful fic. Hett is a Tusken, and in the brief comics appearance he gets, he learns of Anakin’s massacre of a Tusken tribe but, because of plot, keeps the secret. This takes that canon event and fleshes out WHY you’d keep that secret, what the impact would be, and how much the process of changing your mind would take a vast effort of personal healing. Loved this. Unabashedly recommend this.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck – A novella about a man in a hell specifically for him – having followed the wrong religion in life (not Zoroastrianism), he is condemned to remain in a library of books until he finds his autobiography. It’s a strange book – the prose is very clear and embellished and it reminds me strongly of a Piranesi. It’s magical realism? I guess? I wasn’t annoyed at the book while I read it but I’m a bit miffed at it in retrospect – I think it could have gone deeper into the dark elements of the soul that it was trying to get into.
a star to steer by norcumi – a re-read ! I apparently have read this three times, and it remains an excellent and confusing work of fiction. A Star War Clone Wars fusion AU with Stargate – a really weird vision for both worlds, but what I really enjoy about this fic is the actual work of cultural exchange and mutual understanding that happens in this fic – sometimes messily! The characters from Stargate are largely unchanged from their TV show versions except the question if they’d encountered better allies earlier in the show, with more interest in helping them, and demanding that humans become more compassionate to the victims of the mind-controlling Stargate aliens.
Softer Arena Slave AU - https://archiveofourown.org/series/4025155 – a great Soulmates AU that focuses on Obi-Wan Kenobi, abandoned teenage Jedi, being found with Jango Fett’s soulmate mark – only not by Jango! Instead it’s Jaster Mereel, Jango’s adopted father, who assumed that Jango was dead until he saw the proof on Obi-Wan’s skin that Jango still lives! It’s a great story and very interested in Mandalorian culture.
What I’m Reading
City of Lies by Sam Hawke – 28% - I am technically re-reading this but have no actual knowledge of the book’s plot.
When the Dead Tree Flowers by Blackkat – Star Wars Clone Wars AU focused on minor EU character Granta Omega – God I love this and I really should finish it
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan – 40% ish
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
What I’ll Read Next
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian
