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Real Life: Huzzah, I am finally covid negative! And feeling significantly better, tho my general stamina is a lot lower than it was two weeks ago – I got tired from a twenty-minute walk earlier today. But hopefully things will sort themselves out before too long. In the meanwhile, I am being slow and gentle with myself as much as possible and taking breaks and resting as much as I need.
I have a busy day tomorrow, with a bit of travel for work, so I'm posting this round-up a day early.
What I’ve Read
Nothing to completion in the book field. I wasn’t much compelled to read anything after the Xenoethnography series last week.
I have read some shorter fanfic, tho, and here is the round up on the best of that.
Rest Easy by Largishcat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42136437 - Transformers AU -Ratchet focused AU where he becomes a Decepticon medic.
Paying Debts by astolat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/37333618- Game of Thrones AU, Tywin Lannister realizes that if he wants his favorite son to settled down and start popping out kids, he’s going to have to convince Brienne of Tarth that he’s not, in fact, going to stab the Starks in the back.
The Price of Bread and Salt by astolat https://archiveofourown.org/works/36539203 - Game of Thrones AU
What I’m Reading
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe (of XKCD fame) Sineala mentioned reading this last Wednesday and it reminded me that, hey, I own that. I’m picking it up at random when I might otherwise pick up my phone and futz around. I think this is one of those books that would have been a real favorite of mine at age 9-15, and it’s got some fun puzzles that do a good job of discussing how to think about a complicated problem and approach a reasonable answer. I recommend it! – 8%
Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (1991) – This is a Star Wars Expanded Universe/Legends novel that introduces Grand Admiral Thrawn - the book is now sadly out of canon. I think I *must* have read this back in the ‘90s – there are too many things in it that I vaguely remember as a scene or a line, but the whole of the book is a blur to me. I am reading this because I am digging into the Star Wars cultural past, aka, the stuff that fans loved but that Disney has decided doesn’t matter until they need to mine it for content for the TV shows, which will do it differently and somehow worse. I know from internet buzz that Thrawn showed up in the preview for some live action show that’s coming up, so I’m attempting to get ahead of the curve. I had already read two of the new-canon works (from 2017) by Zahn that revisit the character, and I’m not sure that they were an improvement, tho they were perfectly fine books on their own. ( I am a little sad over how much less interesting Kylo Ren was compared to Jacen Solo, but that ship has well and truly sailed.) – 39%
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - static, too sick to read
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static, too sick to read
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - static
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer – Static
Did not finish – I started A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda) and decided to put it down around the 20% mark. I don’t think I was quite fair to it – it strongly reminded me of several books I have read already, some that I enjoyed and some not so much.
( My reaction to what I read up to about chapter 7, when I bailed )
That said, it seems to be a popular book series among some circles of Tiktok, and I would be willing to give it another chance, if I could find someone who could help me find the fun in it.
What I’ll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
I have a busy day tomorrow, with a bit of travel for work, so I'm posting this round-up a day early.
What I’ve Read
Nothing to completion in the book field. I wasn’t much compelled to read anything after the Xenoethnography series last week.
I have read some shorter fanfic, tho, and here is the round up on the best of that.
Rest Easy by Largishcat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42136437 - Transformers AU -Ratchet focused AU where he becomes a Decepticon medic.
Paying Debts by astolat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/37333618- Game of Thrones AU, Tywin Lannister realizes that if he wants his favorite son to settled down and start popping out kids, he’s going to have to convince Brienne of Tarth that he’s not, in fact, going to stab the Starks in the back.
The Price of Bread and Salt by astolat https://archiveofourown.org/works/36539203 - Game of Thrones AU
What I’m Reading
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe (of XKCD fame) Sineala mentioned reading this last Wednesday and it reminded me that, hey, I own that. I’m picking it up at random when I might otherwise pick up my phone and futz around. I think this is one of those books that would have been a real favorite of mine at age 9-15, and it’s got some fun puzzles that do a good job of discussing how to think about a complicated problem and approach a reasonable answer. I recommend it! – 8%
Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (1991) – This is a Star Wars Expanded Universe/Legends novel that introduces Grand Admiral Thrawn - the book is now sadly out of canon. I think I *must* have read this back in the ‘90s – there are too many things in it that I vaguely remember as a scene or a line, but the whole of the book is a blur to me. I am reading this because I am digging into the Star Wars cultural past, aka, the stuff that fans loved but that Disney has decided doesn’t matter until they need to mine it for content for the TV shows, which will do it differently and somehow worse. I know from internet buzz that Thrawn showed up in the preview for some live action show that’s coming up, so I’m attempting to get ahead of the curve. I had already read two of the new-canon works (from 2017) by Zahn that revisit the character, and I’m not sure that they were an improvement, tho they were perfectly fine books on their own. ( I am a little sad over how much less interesting Kylo Ren was compared to Jacen Solo, but that ship has well and truly sailed.) – 39%
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - static, too sick to read
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static, too sick to read
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - static
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer – Static
Did not finish – I started A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda) and decided to put it down around the 20% mark. I don’t think I was quite fair to it – it strongly reminded me of several books I have read already, some that I enjoyed and some not so much.
( My reaction to what I read up to about chapter 7, when I bailed )
That said, it seems to be a popular book series among some circles of Tiktok, and I would be willing to give it another chance, if I could find someone who could help me find the fun in it.
What I’ll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Wednesday Reading Meme April 19 2023
Apr. 19th, 2023 02:32 pmLife updates: I have a post-paxlovid rebound case of covid – lots of sniffling and body aches and low fever. It’s exhausting.
What I’ve Read
Xenoethnography series by Therrae (Dasha_MTE) https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458 - 408K - This long sprawling series is the ultimate in outsider POV – Kim is an anthropologist who takes a job to study Transformers, in as realistic and thoughtful a way as possible. I don’t know this canon, so there are probably some bits that are going over my head, but Therrae is also just clearly so invested in writing these aliens as alien, from their mech bodies to their mindset to their religious beliefs, and I really love it. It’s great, and I had read it before (tho I am not sure I actually read the finished updates when they came out summer 2022). It’s great, highly recommend.
Banners from the Turrets by DesdemonaKaylose, neveralarch, towards_morning Tranformers fic - 249K "A collection of AUs predicated on the thought that Megatron remembered Rung after all those years, after that brief of an encounter, because, well... that day in Maccadam's, Megatron might have fallen a little bit head over heels."
Mira’s Last Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold – Mixed feelings on this Penric and Desdemona entry. This is the second of three stories focusing on Penric meeting and courting an older woman he meets On the Job, and they have great chemistry. This book finds them in the middle of running to safety with her brother, and disguising themselves to pass as travelers until they can get to the protection of a nearby lord. The key element of this book is that Penric crossdresses in a brothel, channeling one of the older personalities attached to his demon, the courtesan Mira. Mind you, I would be wildly into looking at gender and sex work in this world, Bujold has done some cool stuff, and Mira is portrayed as a clever older woman who enjoyed her work and thrived, but the book kind of bends over backwards to show us that Penric didn’t go “too far” and overall I found it a bit judgey.
What I’m Reading
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - static, too sick to read
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static, too sick to read
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - static
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer – Static
What I’ll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Owned and Read/Reading: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss , Aphorisms of Kerishdar
What I’ve Read
Xenoethnography series by Therrae (Dasha_MTE) https://archiveofourown.org/series/913458 - 408K - This long sprawling series is the ultimate in outsider POV – Kim is an anthropologist who takes a job to study Transformers, in as realistic and thoughtful a way as possible. I don’t know this canon, so there are probably some bits that are going over my head, but Therrae is also just clearly so invested in writing these aliens as alien, from their mech bodies to their mindset to their religious beliefs, and I really love it. It’s great, and I had read it before (tho I am not sure I actually read the finished updates when they came out summer 2022). It’s great, highly recommend.
Banners from the Turrets by DesdemonaKaylose, neveralarch, towards_morning Tranformers fic - 249K "A collection of AUs predicated on the thought that Megatron remembered Rung after all those years, after that brief of an encounter, because, well... that day in Maccadam's, Megatron might have fallen a little bit head over heels."
Mira’s Last Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold – Mixed feelings on this Penric and Desdemona entry. This is the second of three stories focusing on Penric meeting and courting an older woman he meets On the Job, and they have great chemistry. This book finds them in the middle of running to safety with her brother, and disguising themselves to pass as travelers until they can get to the protection of a nearby lord. The key element of this book is that Penric crossdresses in a brothel, channeling one of the older personalities attached to his demon, the courtesan Mira. Mind you, I would be wildly into looking at gender and sex work in this world, Bujold has done some cool stuff, and Mira is portrayed as a clever older woman who enjoyed her work and thrived, but the book kind of bends over backwards to show us that Penric didn’t go “too far” and overall I found it a bit judgey.
What I’m Reading
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - static, too sick to read
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static, too sick to read
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - static
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer – Static
What I’ll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Owned and Read/Reading: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss , Aphorisms of Kerishdar
Wednesday Reading Meme April 12 2023
Apr. 12th, 2023 11:47 amWhat I’ve Read
The Aphorisms of Kherishdar by M.C.A. Hogarth -These two are both short story collections in a calm and ordered alien world, with a societal structure that is managed by some careful philosophy and art and social structures. It’s got some slightly kinky undertones, and I’m re-reading because I got paperback copies of the books as a gift from a friend. It’s delightful and probably not for everyone and I read one ofthese a day while I started showing early signs of covid.
The Admonishments of Kherishdar by M.C.A. Hogarth
Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia – This re-read for book club was great and I think the book holds up. I am looking forward to the discussion.
What I’m Reading
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39%
The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - 19% - abandoned, audiobook recalled by library
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - a little progress
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - Static
What I'll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Owned and Read/Reading: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss
What I’ll Read Next
Life: Well, three years was a pretty good run. I have Covid. My spouse came back from an international family trip, aka, the exact way they got Covid in October. But they weren’t coughing or ill when theygot back and the rapid rest was negative, so we didn’t put them quarantine… until the day AFTER they got back, when theyhad a cough and a fever. The first positive test the next day. So, here we are.
We both got paxlovid and took time off work and we are recovering well – I cannot imagine how awful this would be if there were no effective means of treatment. I am trying to rest as well as I can, because I think that’s linked to better long term results, so, we’ll see if I can read some things.
The Aphorisms of Kherishdar by M.C.A. Hogarth -These two are both short story collections in a calm and ordered alien world, with a societal structure that is managed by some careful philosophy and art and social structures. It’s got some slightly kinky undertones, and I’m re-reading because I got paperback copies of the books as a gift from a friend. It’s delightful and probably not for everyone and I read one ofthese a day while I started showing early signs of covid.
The Admonishments of Kherishdar by M.C.A. Hogarth
Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia – This re-read for book club was great and I think the book holds up. I am looking forward to the discussion.
What I’m Reading
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39%
The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - 19% - abandoned, audiobook recalled by library
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva -static
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 28% - a little progress
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - Static
What I'll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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,
Owned and Read/Reading: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss
What I’ll Read Next
Life: Well, three years was a pretty good run. I have Covid. My spouse came back from an international family trip, aka, the exact way they got Covid in October. But they weren’t coughing or ill when theygot back and the rapid rest was negative, so we didn’t put them quarantine… until the day AFTER they got back, when theyhad a cough and a fever. The first positive test the next day. So, here we are.
We both got paxlovid and took time off work and we are recovering well – I cannot imagine how awful this would be if there were no effective means of treatment. I am trying to rest as well as I can, because I think that’s linked to better long term results, so, we’ll see if I can read some things.
Wednesday Reading Meme for April 5 2023
Apr. 5th, 2023 02:53 pmWhat I've Read
A Restless Truth - Freya Marske - Second in a series and I bring that up because the people I read who started this book did so without KNOWING that it was the second in a series. (It holds its own but a lot of the background does not make sense).
I really enjoyed this book - the main characters got to do some whacky and hilarious stuff in the midst of quite a serious investigation with high stakes. The sapphic love story is a delight but they are far from perfect people, and I think overall, I enjoyed this more than the first book. I found Maud to be a bit more relatable than Robin, the POV character for most of the first book, but I also just adored Violet and all her showy, prickly ways. Third book comes out this fall.
(I think that The Locked Tomb series may have unlocked something in my brain that really enjoys series, and having to wait for another feels like a gift of future pleasure rather than a punishment for not being a single book.)
Fanfic I've read
cacio e pepe by serephemeral - https://archiveofourown.org/works/21845440 - I adored this "Some Like it Hot" continuation. After movie ends with "Well, nobody's perfect!" Daphe, who is still sometimes Jerry, runs off into the sunset with Osgood. And Joe, and Sugar. The future doesn't look anything like they planned but it's amazing none the less. Kudos to schneefink for reccing this, I would never have found it otherwise and it's officially my favorite Some Like It Hot fic.
Polite Company by spicedrobot - https://archiveofourown.org/works/37924555 - Star Wars Prequels and Clone Wars Cartoon. Maul isn't a very good Jedi. Obi-Wan isn't a very good Sith. They make it work, after the kidnapping.
What I'm Reading
Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 23% - A re-read for me for the Discord book club. Super creepy and really readable.
The Gothic: A Very Short Introduction - Nick Groom - 39% - This is my first time reading the "very short introduction" books and it's really interesting! Pulling together some threads about English history and this aesthetic mode that have never quite tied themselves together in my head.
Also, I had re-watched Crimson Peak this week, and it was a fascinating re-watch! I caught so much more of the symbolism around Edith's clothing and Lucille's cryptic statements about their mother. I liked Thomas a lot less on this re-watch, before the ending, but I think I saw more of his wistful attempt to escape. I also totally did NOT remember how much Edith's writing shapes the early edges of her relationship with Thomas - he first is interested in her because of her writing! When he's trying to break her heart, he attacks her writing
The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - 19% - A re-read before I get into the rest of the books for fun. I'm listening to the audiobook and the narrator, who I will not name, is pronouncing "duchy" wrong for the entire book. (So that it rhymes with "cootchie") and I'm solidering bravely on. I forgot how much of the book is just "terrified lesbian of color gradually sells people out for safety and the promise of future power" and ooooh, man, it's good.
Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection - Julia Kristeva - This is a very navel-gazing literary theory book that makes me realize all afresh that I have real problems with Freudian framing for everything, BUT, it is cited by every major work on horror that I have read. It's French, it's slow, it's worth a read but it's going to be a slog.
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 23% - static
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - Static
Underline the Black by not_poignant https://archiveofourown.org/works/41396784 - Probably going to return to this when it's finished.
On Earth as It Is in Heaven by samyazaz https://archiveofourown.org/works/833193 - Soulmate AU of Vikings - You don't need to know anything other than the first season or a vague sense of how history went down
What I'll Read Next
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Owned and Read/Reading:
Wednesday Reading Meme - March 29 2023
Mar. 29th, 2023 12:21 pmWhat I've Read
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Xing Book Club - I adored this - like Tamsyn Muir's Nona the Ninth, this is written from the POV of a character who has the least information about where he is and how he got there, and the novel is largely about him finding out what happened. This is about a haunted house, maybe, from the view point of the living man doing the haunting, or maybe a labyrinth from the view of the minotaur. The atmospheric descriptions of the vast and impossible structure put me in mind of descriptions of hikers talking about walking great swaths of a trail and getting to directly experience their own minds paying attention to minute details of the world around them. I have heard it compared to House of Leaves, which seems somewhat fair - they have both have an epistolary style and a focus on an impossible space - but Piranesi is far gentler. I really, really enjoyed it - read it in a day - and I'm a bit sad I can't sum it up better! The mere plot of the thing doesn't really live up to the experience.
A Gentleman and An Officer by Trudemaethien (Restricted) https://archiveofourown.org/works/46045405 -Star Wars Clone Wars AU bit of military fic, Cody/Rex
The Creche by Blue_Sunshine https://archiveofourown.org/works/36847618 - AU Star Wars fic with a bit of a series. Anakin/Obi-Wan. Anakin goes down to the Jedi Temple's creche for the first time, after being raised mostly by Qui-Gon Jinn, and meets the crechemaster.
the first church of the end of the world by withbloodstainedclothingon https://archiveofourown.org/works/4007173 - Supernatural - Dean and Lisa and Castiel, AU of The End
What I'm Reading
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 23% - static - This is a Star Wars "Legends" novel that builds out a lot of the Mandalorian culture by focusing on the military fiction adventures of a subset of clone commandos who were raised and trained by one Mandalorian trainer in particular. There's a bunch of awkward stuff in this particular novel around a pregnancy and some real patriarchal BS, which is why I'm slow with it. But it's good background for my "Clones are Fun, Actually" reading.
A Restless Truth - Freya Marske - 55% - This is a fun fantasy with ship-board mystery and a sapphic romance that is both sweet and quite sexy. The first book in this trilogy was a delight and this is also adorable. I started this about three days ago and I have been blitzing thru.
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - A re-read bc a couple of my friends are starting it. It's a future mystery with a writing style like a 18th century novel, all breathless and Englightnment that I really enjoy.
Underline the Black by not_poignant https://archiveofourown.org/works/41396784 - Not_Poignant writes some really interesting fannish-feeling original work, and this seems like it's an Omegaverse AU of that - twisty and very hurt/moderate comfort.
On Earth as It Is in Heaven by samyazaz https://archiveofourown.org/works/833193 - Soulmate AU of Vikings - You don't need to know anything other than the first season or a vague sense of how history went down
What I'll Read Next
Powers of Horror - Chapter 1 - For the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch. This is a nonfiction theory book that is referred to in many of the horror-focused sources that we have previously read.
The Gothic A Very Short Introduction - After the last reading we did kind of didn't get into what The Gothic is in literature, I figured that this might be a good little supplemental piece.
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Mexican Gothic - Discord Book Club - A re-read for me, but I enjoyed the book the first time and I think it will be fun to get into again.
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Owned and Read/Reading:Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi,True Colors by Karen Traviss
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Xing Book Club - I adored this - like Tamsyn Muir's Nona the Ninth, this is written from the POV of a character who has the least information about where he is and how he got there, and the novel is largely about him finding out what happened. This is about a haunted house, maybe, from the view point of the living man doing the haunting, or maybe a labyrinth from the view of the minotaur. The atmospheric descriptions of the vast and impossible structure put me in mind of descriptions of hikers talking about walking great swaths of a trail and getting to directly experience their own minds paying attention to minute details of the world around them. I have heard it compared to House of Leaves, which seems somewhat fair - they have both have an epistolary style and a focus on an impossible space - but Piranesi is far gentler. I really, really enjoyed it - read it in a day - and I'm a bit sad I can't sum it up better! The mere plot of the thing doesn't really live up to the experience.
A Gentleman and An Officer by Trudemaethien (Restricted) https://archiveofourown.org/works/46045405 -Star Wars Clone Wars AU bit of military fic, Cody/Rex
The Creche by Blue_Sunshine https://archiveofourown.org/works/36847618 - AU Star Wars fic with a bit of a series. Anakin/Obi-Wan. Anakin goes down to the Jedi Temple's creche for the first time, after being raised mostly by Qui-Gon Jinn, and meets the crechemaster.
the first church of the end of the world by withbloodstainedclothingon https://archiveofourown.org/works/4007173 - Supernatural - Dean and Lisa and Castiel, AU of The End
What I'm Reading
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 23% - static - This is a Star Wars "Legends" novel that builds out a lot of the Mandalorian culture by focusing on the military fiction adventures of a subset of clone commandos who were raised and trained by one Mandalorian trainer in particular. There's a bunch of awkward stuff in this particular novel around a pregnancy and some real patriarchal BS, which is why I'm slow with it. But it's good background for my "Clones are Fun, Actually" reading.
A Restless Truth - Freya Marske - 55% - This is a fun fantasy with ship-board mystery and a sapphic romance that is both sweet and quite sexy. The first book in this trilogy was a delight and this is also adorable. I started this about three days ago and I have been blitzing thru.
Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer - A re-read bc a couple of my friends are starting it. It's a future mystery with a writing style like a 18th century novel, all breathless and Englightnment that I really enjoy.
Underline the Black by not_poignant https://archiveofourown.org/works/41396784 - Not_Poignant writes some really interesting fannish-feeling original work, and this seems like it's an Omegaverse AU of that - twisty and very hurt/moderate comfort.
On Earth as It Is in Heaven by samyazaz https://archiveofourown.org/works/833193 - Soulmate AU of Vikings - You don't need to know anything other than the first season or a vague sense of how history went down
What I'll Read Next
Powers of Horror - Chapter 1 - For the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch. This is a nonfiction theory book that is referred to in many of the horror-focused sources that we have previously read.
The Gothic A Very Short Introduction - After the last reading we did kind of didn't get into what The Gothic is in literature, I figured that this might be a good little supplemental piece.
The Calculating Stars - Xing Book Club
Mexican Gothic - Discord Book Club - A re-read for me, but I enjoyed the book the first time and I think it will be fun to get into again.
Babel - Looks like it will on the Hugos list eventually, I'm trying to get out ahead of things
Owned and need to read: California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, 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
Owned and Read/Reading:
Wednesday Reading Meme - March 22, 2023
Mar. 22nd, 2023 02:44 pmWhat 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
Wednesday Reading Meme - March 15, 2023
Mar. 15th, 2023 04:35 pm"Brutus is just as smart as Caesar, people totally like Brutus just as much as they like Caesar, and when did it become okay for one person to be the boss of everybody because that's not what Rome is about! We should totally just STAB CAESAR!”
What I've Read
I have completed no new books at all! Muahaha.
I have read a bunch of shorter stuff by Trudemaethien, whose longest work, Ke'Bajuri, was on my list last week - I have read 90K of that but since it's only on chap 11 of a planned 25, I'm torn about counting it. I'll keep it here with an asterisk for now.
What I'm Reading
Nona the Ninth - Locked Tomb - 55% - Spoiler thoughts here in Rot13- Aban unf whfg tbggra fubg sbe gur frpbaq gvzr naq V nz n ovg cvffrq ng Ubg Fnhpr naq V qb abg gehfg gur Natry irel zhpu ng nyy! Cnfu frrzf yvxr n wrex, gbb, jr'yy frr ubj vg nyy funxrf bhg.
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 18% - Probably what inspired me to go find better fanfic for these nerds.
A Half-Built Garden - 69% - got delayed when the audiobook had to go back to the library but it's back today and I was really enjoying the narrator and whole thing.
What I'll Read Next
Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi
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
What I've Read
I have completed no new books at all! Muahaha.
I have read a bunch of shorter stuff by Trudemaethien, whose longest work, Ke'Bajuri, was on my list last week - I have read 90K of that but since it's only on chap 11 of a planned 25, I'm torn about counting it. I'll keep it here with an asterisk for now.
What I'm Reading
Nona the Ninth - Locked Tomb - 55% - Spoiler thoughts here in Rot13- Aban unf whfg tbggra fubg sbe gur frpbaq gvzr naq V nz n ovg cvffrq ng Ubg Fnhpr naq V qb abg gehfg gur Natry irel zhpu ng nyy! Cnfu frrzf yvxr n wrex, gbb, jr'yy frr ubj vg nyy funxrf bhg.
True Colors - Karen Traviss - 18% - Probably what inspired me to go find better fanfic for these nerds.
A Half-Built Garden - 69% - got delayed when the audiobook had to go back to the library but it's back today and I was really enjoying the narrator and whole thing.
What I'll Read Next
Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi
Dowry of Blood
Too Like the Lightning - Audiobook, maybe
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and
Wednesday Reading Meme for March 8 2023
Mar. 8th, 2023 02:20 pmWhat 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
(no subject)
Mar. 1st, 2023 11:14 amWhat I've Read
just me against the sky by magneticwave - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42315729 (48K) Bat-family alternate universe where Tim Drake is a girl and never became Robin but was a different and kind of badass. Girl!Tim/Girl!Jason, but mostly pre-relationship. This is charming and a tender and wonderful look at who Tim is and could have been, in a slightly diffrent world than the comics are showing us. (I think I came across it in the bookmarks of SPQR (https://archiveofourown.org/users/spqr) whose work in Mandalorian fandom is probably why I got into Star Wars prequel fanfic. ) "Just me against the sky" was a great fic to read, in part because it made me realize just how much of magneticwave's fic I have read in some many different fandoms. I went on a binge and re-read "staring down the barrel of the hot sun" and read "i want your warmth to stay beside me" for the first time and a few other shorter things - go, read their stuff, it's amazing.
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/83f3410a-8112-4958-93ff-6a7fbb184ff1) (Read by Michael Boatman, who deserves an Oscar) Read for Discord Book Club This book was totally outside my normal perview - a historical novel about John Brown's last few years of life, as told from a newly freed young mand who was mascarading as a girl for most of the novel. It's hilarious, it's painful, it's keenly attentive to the damage that suffering causes to the human soul under slavery, and it bounces between reverent and irreverent like a tennis ball in a dryer. Highly recommend. ( Somehow the book group discussion did not get into trans themes at all, but this book is from 2013 and the author is my mom's age so I don't think trans issues were at all on his mind. But it would make for a real discussion about gender as performance and how that works in the context of race for the space of the book.)
What I'm Reading
Phoenix Extravagant - by Yoon Ha Lee - (Read by Emily Woo Zeller) to the end of Chapter 11, for Xing Book Club - Man, this book is good. It's clearly cribbing off the Japanese invasion of Korea in a fantasy setting for languages and cultural notes, the main character is interesting. It's interested in the meaning and value of art to the culture that created it and what an invading culture values in those same works of art - the main character is an artist and they are dealing with the delicate balance of making a living under occupation while maintaining an identity as an artist and a person in their own culture. It doesn't cut quite as close to the soul as a A Memory Called Empire but that might be due to the fact that the narrator is a painter and I'm not. Lovely book, blitzed thru it as an audiook to the stopping point for the book club.
A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys (Read by Kate Handford) - 37% read - also for Xing Book Club, but it's the next book out- A pastoral Earth that revolted and rebuilt to stave off climate apocalypse makes first contact with some aliens who have some fascinatingly different ideas about where sentient species should end up. Great themes! - people compare it to Le Guin and I see the commonalities but I'm going to see how it sticks the landing. The aliens see motherhood, specifically gestational motherhood, as a key sign of leadership ability, and so the main character's relationship with the aliens really has a lot of baby care woven in. Polyamory! Jews in the future! The alluring glitter of apocalyptic corporate culture in the far future. Espionage! Alternate forms of government!
Harrow the Ninth - 86% - Tamsyn Muir - When I get done with this book, I'm doing to have to do some screaming about it. What's notable about the reading experience is that so many people have told me that they read and enjoyed this series that there's a whole LIST of people I can go and scream at when something absurd happens. Is this the experience that people were having reading the Harry Potter books as they came out? Because I didn't, I was an awkward kid who read books to get away from people and not to connect with them, but man, I could see how the allure of this feeling would linger as a warm and fuzzy memory well past the point I finish this book. (Not to the point of remaining financially loyal to the author if she starts, ya know, targeting peopel for stocastic violence thru twitter, jesus fucking christ, some Harry Potter fans have some major fucking blinders on for their asshole) I accidentally created a bookclub around The Locked Tomb Series and its going well!
Men With Stakes - Julia Wright - still at 65% - need to finish the book for March 12th
A Very Good Book for the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch! Highly recommend for people who want to think about the show and the way it fit into concepts of masculinity as part of the landscape of tv. I wish the author would define her concept of "the gothic" somewhere in the book!
What I'll Read Next
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Xing Book Club
Audiobooks from Libby that I need to get to: Spare by Harry No Last Name, Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, Re-reads planned via audiobook for A Taste of Gold and Iron and Mexican Gothic (I got some friends to read it and it's landed very well and I want to talk about it again!)
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
Work in Progress Wednesday (The Return)
Sock Madness was once again too much for me- I got one sock done and sent it in to be a cheerleader rather than on a team. I found this technique (intarsia in the round) a good stretch of skills but no way I was getting that done in time for the second sock. That said, I have started the second sock and I'm knitting it flat, against the rules of the competition socks, and it's sooooo much easier. Intarsia in the round, kids, not even once.
just me against the sky by magneticwave - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42315729 (48K) Bat-family alternate universe where Tim Drake is a girl and never became Robin but was a different and kind of badass. Girl!Tim/Girl!Jason, but mostly pre-relationship. This is charming and a tender and wonderful look at who Tim is and could have been, in a slightly diffrent world than the comics are showing us. (I think I came across it in the bookmarks of SPQR (https://archiveofourown.org/users/spqr) whose work in Mandalorian fandom is probably why I got into Star Wars prequel fanfic. ) "Just me against the sky" was a great fic to read, in part because it made me realize just how much of magneticwave's fic I have read in some many different fandoms. I went on a binge and re-read "staring down the barrel of the hot sun" and read "i want your warmth to stay beside me" for the first time and a few other shorter things - go, read their stuff, it's amazing.
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/83f3410a-8112-4958-93ff-6a7fbb184ff1) (Read by Michael Boatman, who deserves an Oscar) Read for Discord Book Club This book was totally outside my normal perview - a historical novel about John Brown's last few years of life, as told from a newly freed young mand who was mascarading as a girl for most of the novel. It's hilarious, it's painful, it's keenly attentive to the damage that suffering causes to the human soul under slavery, and it bounces between reverent and irreverent like a tennis ball in a dryer. Highly recommend. ( Somehow the book group discussion did not get into trans themes at all, but this book is from 2013 and the author is my mom's age so I don't think trans issues were at all on his mind. But it would make for a real discussion about gender as performance and how that works in the context of race for the space of the book.)
What I'm Reading
Phoenix Extravagant - by Yoon Ha Lee - (Read by Emily Woo Zeller) to the end of Chapter 11, for Xing Book Club - Man, this book is good. It's clearly cribbing off the Japanese invasion of Korea in a fantasy setting for languages and cultural notes, the main character is interesting. It's interested in the meaning and value of art to the culture that created it and what an invading culture values in those same works of art - the main character is an artist and they are dealing with the delicate balance of making a living under occupation while maintaining an identity as an artist and a person in their own culture. It doesn't cut quite as close to the soul as a A Memory Called Empire but that might be due to the fact that the narrator is a painter and I'm not. Lovely book, blitzed thru it as an audiook to the stopping point for the book club.
A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys (Read by Kate Handford) - 37% read - also for Xing Book Club, but it's the next book out- A pastoral Earth that revolted and rebuilt to stave off climate apocalypse makes first contact with some aliens who have some fascinatingly different ideas about where sentient species should end up. Great themes! - people compare it to Le Guin and I see the commonalities but I'm going to see how it sticks the landing. The aliens see motherhood, specifically gestational motherhood, as a key sign of leadership ability, and so the main character's relationship with the aliens really has a lot of baby care woven in. Polyamory! Jews in the future! The alluring glitter of apocalyptic corporate culture in the far future. Espionage! Alternate forms of government!
Harrow the Ninth - 86% - Tamsyn Muir - When I get done with this book, I'm doing to have to do some screaming about it. What's notable about the reading experience is that so many people have told me that they read and enjoyed this series that there's a whole LIST of people I can go and scream at when something absurd happens. Is this the experience that people were having reading the Harry Potter books as they came out? Because I didn't, I was an awkward kid who read books to get away from people and not to connect with them, but man, I could see how the allure of this feeling would linger as a warm and fuzzy memory well past the point I finish this book. (Not to the point of remaining financially loyal to the author if she starts, ya know, targeting peopel for stocastic violence thru twitter, jesus fucking christ, some Harry Potter fans have some major fucking blinders on for their asshole) I accidentally created a bookclub around The Locked Tomb Series and its going well!
Men With Stakes - Julia Wright - still at 65% - need to finish the book for March 12th
A Very Good Book for the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch! Highly recommend for people who want to think about the show and the way it fit into concepts of masculinity as part of the landscape of tv. I wish the author would define her concept of "the gothic" somewhere in the book!
What I'll Read Next
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - Xing Book Club
Audiobooks from Libby that I need to get to: Spare by Harry No Last Name, Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi, Re-reads planned via audiobook for A Taste of Gold and Iron and Mexican Gothic (I got some friends to read it and it's landed very well and I want to talk about it again!)
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and
Work in Progress Wednesday (The Return)
Sock Madness was once again too much for me- I got one sock done and sent it in to be a cheerleader rather than on a team. I found this technique (intarsia in the round) a good stretch of skills but no way I was getting that done in time for the second sock. That said, I have started the second sock and I'm knitting it flat, against the rules of the competition socks, and it's sooooo much easier. Intarsia in the round, kids, not even once.
What I've Read
When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare (narrated by Carmen Rose - solid B+ work, good voices but man, the Scottish accent did not work for me.) https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/27f29749-a0f6-4b3f-b0ac-32a823d4a43a
Reading this was fun - I had the audiobook a few weeks back, but it got pulled back from Libby before I finished it - when it came up again as free recently, I just started in the same place and it was really cute. I found this a bit eye-rolly in a couple of places, like I often do for romance novels, but overall, I liked both the leads and the situation was very sympathetic.
November Baby by Astrophyllite https://archiveofourown.org/works/35448196 An Untamed fic - Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín/Niè Míngjué, Sugar Daddy fic, wherein Jiang Cheng is a grad student cut off by his parents after he refuses to disown his troublesome foster brother. This is a very idealized and nonexploitative sugar baby situation - the angsty set-ups mostly landed very softly and miscommunications where smoothed over easily, but there was a some fantastic "pining for the person you are sleeping with" and I adore that.
Girls Weekend by CM Nascosta (narrated by Sierra Kline, who did a GREAT job) https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a6bc614f-7950-4f17-a4d6-f7b091648fec
A fun and flirty monsterfucking fic, wherein three young women go to a sexy resort to have some fun times, realize that they have an uncomfortable relationship with the societal structures that they left behind, and ultimately maybe choose some things for themselves. Trigger warning for a character having consistent uncharitable thoughts about her fatness, which occur in the context of her attempting to overcome internalized fatphobia that is linked to her mom's past behavior. Honestly, while that was done with a good touch for character, I didn't really enjoy encountering it. Maybe it would have bugged me less reading this on a screen than in an audiobook.
a simple thing by iridan https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099556 - Mandalorian, Boba Fett/Din Djarin, not in canon with Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars Expanded Universe
Oh, god, I unabashedly and unreservedly love this fic. It's so fucking long and carefully constructed and takes seriously that Din Djarin is coming out of a cult and encountering his own religion and tradition outside of that framework for the first time. It's very full of the complicated feelings of someone who going from "I am damned" to "well, if I'm damned, I might as well do what I actually want" to "Wait, maybe I'm not damned" to "Wait, actually, maybe damn all of you assholes for treating people like this!" - a journey that takes him thru Mandalorian history and the Jedi and takes seriously the slaving history on Tatooine. It's an impossibly long fic that posted the final chapter in January this year, and I really wanted to go back and read the entire fic - but alas, that project will remain for me in the future. Finishing these last few chapters was a wonderful journey and I heartily recommned this fic.
What I'm Reading
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I'm in Chapter 45 - what the fuck. I love this. due March 4th or so - EDIT - actually ended up finishing this and I'm not going to edit this entry but, future Kite, please note, you did finish this.
Good Lord Bird by James McBride (narrator Michael Boatman, who is doing a very complicated thing very well!) Just started the audiobook of this after realizing that I wasn't likely to get to read it while I'm working on my knitting project. I was delighted to see that once again, my project of acquiring as many e-library cards as I could manage has paid off - a new library had it immediately available! I'm going to try and get it done for this Saturday.
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee - due March 1
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
In other news, Sock Madness has started and I have gotten ten rows into the difficult chart for the sock that I need to complete by next Wednesday. Which, I stopped to do the math on this and realized, if I want to get both socks done for next week, I need to get about 40 rows per day... which is about how much I have done TOTAL. Approx 150 rows of knitting per sock X 2 socks/ 8 days =37.5, but let's be real, that row count does not account for the heel. So, ideally, I would be finishing the whole ballow section of the intarsia chart today, but let's be real, that won't happen.
When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare (narrated by Carmen Rose - solid B+ work, good voices but man, the Scottish accent did not work for me.) https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/27f29749-a0f6-4b3f-b0ac-32a823d4a43a
Reading this was fun - I had the audiobook a few weeks back, but it got pulled back from Libby before I finished it - when it came up again as free recently, I just started in the same place and it was really cute. I found this a bit eye-rolly in a couple of places, like I often do for romance novels, but overall, I liked both the leads and the situation was very sympathetic.
November Baby by Astrophyllite https://archiveofourown.org/works/35448196 An Untamed fic - Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín/Niè Míngjué, Sugar Daddy fic, wherein Jiang Cheng is a grad student cut off by his parents after he refuses to disown his troublesome foster brother. This is a very idealized and nonexploitative sugar baby situation - the angsty set-ups mostly landed very softly and miscommunications where smoothed over easily, but there was a some fantastic "pining for the person you are sleeping with" and I adore that.
Girls Weekend by CM Nascosta (narrated by Sierra Kline, who did a GREAT job) https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a6bc614f-7950-4f17-a4d6-f7b091648fec
A fun and flirty monsterfucking fic, wherein three young women go to a sexy resort to have some fun times, realize that they have an uncomfortable relationship with the societal structures that they left behind, and ultimately maybe choose some things for themselves. Trigger warning for a character having consistent uncharitable thoughts about her fatness, which occur in the context of her attempting to overcome internalized fatphobia that is linked to her mom's past behavior. Honestly, while that was done with a good touch for character, I didn't really enjoy encountering it. Maybe it would have bugged me less reading this on a screen than in an audiobook.
a simple thing by iridan https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099556 - Mandalorian, Boba Fett/Din Djarin, not in canon with Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars Expanded Universe
Oh, god, I unabashedly and unreservedly love this fic. It's so fucking long and carefully constructed and takes seriously that Din Djarin is coming out of a cult and encountering his own religion and tradition outside of that framework for the first time. It's very full of the complicated feelings of someone who going from "I am damned" to "well, if I'm damned, I might as well do what I actually want" to "Wait, maybe I'm not damned" to "Wait, actually, maybe damn all of you assholes for treating people like this!" - a journey that takes him thru Mandalorian history and the Jedi and takes seriously the slaving history on Tatooine. It's an impossibly long fic that posted the final chapter in January this year, and I really wanted to go back and read the entire fic - but alas, that project will remain for me in the future. Finishing these last few chapters was a wonderful journey and I heartily recommned this fic.
What I'm Reading
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - I'm in Chapter 45 - what the fuck. I love this. due March 4th or so - EDIT - actually ended up finishing this and I'm not going to edit this entry but, future Kite, please note, you did finish this.
Good Lord Bird by James McBride (narrator Michael Boatman, who is doing a very complicated thing very well!) Just started the audiobook of this after realizing that I wasn't likely to get to read it while I'm working on my knitting project. I was delighted to see that once again, my project of acquiring as many e-library cards as I could manage has paid off - a new library had it immediately available! I'm going to try and get it done for this Saturday.
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee - due March 1
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
In other news, Sock Madness has started and I have gotten ten rows into the difficult chart for the sock that I need to complete by next Wednesday. Which, I stopped to do the math on this and realized, if I want to get both socks done for next week, I need to get about 40 rows per day... which is about how much I have done TOTAL. Approx 150 rows of knitting per sock X 2 socks/ 8 days =37.5, but let's be real, that row count does not account for the heel. So, ideally, I would be finishing the whole ballow section of the intarsia chart today, but let's be real, that won't happen.
Reading Meme for February 15 2023
Feb. 15th, 2023 04:09 pmWhat I've Read
Dark Rise by CS Pacat - I really enjoyed this! I picked the audiobook up from the library because the ebook was out and I found it was one of the few books that really worked well for me as an audiobook. I have loved CS Pacat's other series, Captive Prince, and while this is YA, I feel it has some common threads about lonely people constrained by fate trying to do good with the limited wiggle room they have.
There were some reviews that were like, "Oooooh, the twist on this book got me!" and that was about as much heads-up as I needed to spot it coming. Frankly, I didn't mind - along the way there were many interesting turns that felt earned, and where the emotional impact landed hard in the right places. Plus, the "big twist" actually does land - it's not quite The Thief, but it's got similarly wide ramifications on the book. I would love to re-read this!
I have been reading a lot of shorter fic, but it's actually been very busy and this is the only book I have read. Blackkat's February offerings have remained fun and really, really delightful.
Random selection of the stuff I have recently read and enjoyed - binder of open wounds
November Baby by astrophyllite - this sugar baby fic is off to a strong start.
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - still amazing, still confusing, I'm about 55% thru.
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant for Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Book Club
The Good Lord Bird - Discord book club is talking about that Feb 25th, so I should get on that.
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
In other, non reading news, I have finished the Clone Wars cartoon at last - the project of the last few months- and I'm not sure how I feel about Season 7. It was a bit of a mixed bag- Ahsoka and Rex's ending, the final shot of Jesse's helmet, that's honestly heartwrenching. I was all set to enjoy the Bad Batch, but so far, I just feel like they are clone superheroes who cannot be harmed, and that's not really a story I'm super interested in. I am going to give it a little time to see if it develops in a way I find interesting.
Dark Rise by CS Pacat - I really enjoyed this! I picked the audiobook up from the library because the ebook was out and I found it was one of the few books that really worked well for me as an audiobook. I have loved CS Pacat's other series, Captive Prince, and while this is YA, I feel it has some common threads about lonely people constrained by fate trying to do good with the limited wiggle room they have.
There were some reviews that were like, "Oooooh, the twist on this book got me!" and that was about as much heads-up as I needed to spot it coming. Frankly, I didn't mind - along the way there were many interesting turns that felt earned, and where the emotional impact landed hard in the right places. Plus, the "big twist" actually does land - it's not quite The Thief, but it's got similarly wide ramifications on the book. I would love to re-read this!
I have been reading a lot of shorter fic, but it's actually been very busy and this is the only book I have read. Blackkat's February offerings have remained fun and really, really delightful.
Random selection of the stuff I have recently read and enjoyed - binder of open wounds
PaxDuane, A Light in the Dark by glimmerglanger, The Forest Road by blackkat
What I'm Reading
November Baby by astrophyllite - this sugar baby fic is off to a strong start.
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - still amazing, still confusing, I'm about 55% thru.
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant for Sci-Fi/ Fantasy Book Club
The Good Lord Bird - Discord book club is talking about that Feb 25th, so I should get on that.
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
In other, non reading news, I have finished the Clone Wars cartoon at last - the project of the last few months- and I'm not sure how I feel about Season 7. It was a bit of a mixed bag- Ahsoka and Rex's ending, the final shot of Jesse's helmet, that's honestly heartwrenching. I was all set to enjoy the Bad Batch, but so far, I just feel like they are clone superheroes who cannot be harmed, and that's not really a story I'm super interested in. I am going to give it a little time to see if it develops in a way I find interesting.
Wednesday Reading Meme for Feb 8 2023
Feb. 7th, 2023 03:17 pmWhat I've Read
Not much to completion, as novels go. I'm reading a fair few things that are a bit longer and I haven't finished them. So, I get to bask a bit.
I'm also posting this early because I have a lot of driving to do tomorrow and I'm not sure I'll get the time.
so you have a bad day by tagteamme https://archiveofourown.org/works/23383810 - Fandom - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Shang Qinghua has a very very bad first go at sex with his ice demon boyfriend and goes for a vacation, gets kidnapped, and then ransomed back to his boo. It's self indulgent and delightful and I
set all your mind upon the steep ascent by sophronist https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516737 (WIP) This is a Star Wars story that imagines Maul, age 9, decides that he does *not* want to be raised by a horribly mean Sith Lord, and escapes to be picked up by none other than Jaster Mareel, the adoptive father of Jango Fett. This might not be for everyone, as it goes into some detailed about the after effects of long term abuse on a small child, but, given that I adore stories where suspicious grumps get a chance to grow and deal with their trauma, I'm here for it.
Blackkat has been writing a number of really good things for Febuwhump - all in Star Wars, with various levels of angst, and it's got some pretty delightful rarepairs.
What I'm Reading
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Remains fascinating and also very, very confusing in places. Multiple time lines, maaaaybe multiple points of view? I am having a good and confusing time, but I am also aware that I am trying to "solve" the book rather than read it at points, so I took a couple of days off to read a book that is at a lower demand level.
Dark Rise - CS Pacat - First in an upcoming YA trilogy about a boy who might have an important destiny related to a lost civilization that needs to face down a Dark King. I think I have a good idea of what the purported big twist is going to be, but I love CS Pacat's writing so I'm along for the ride. This is also one of a few books that I can really enjoy on audiobook - usually I can only re-read things that way. But this leans into being a little repetive in a way that works for that form of intake for me. (I don't think that it's bad writing, just one that allows me to pay less active attention and not miss things.)
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant for Sci-Fi Book Club
The Good Lord Bird - Discord book club is talking about that Feb 25th, so I should get on that.
Library book amnesty - things had been out long enough that I started to accrue fines, which is the point at which I return things. I have only Frankenstein in Baghdad, which I think I will get to eventually.
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Not much to completion, as novels go. I'm reading a fair few things that are a bit longer and I haven't finished them. So, I get to bask a bit.
I'm also posting this early because I have a lot of driving to do tomorrow and I'm not sure I'll get the time.
so you have a bad day by tagteamme https://archiveofourown.org/works/23383810 - Fandom - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Shang Qinghua has a very very bad first go at sex with his ice demon boyfriend and goes for a vacation, gets kidnapped, and then ransomed back to his boo. It's self indulgent and delightful and I
set all your mind upon the steep ascent by sophronist https://archiveofourown.org/works/28516737 (WIP) This is a Star Wars story that imagines Maul, age 9, decides that he does *not* want to be raised by a horribly mean Sith Lord, and escapes to be picked up by none other than Jaster Mareel, the adoptive father of Jango Fett. This might not be for everyone, as it goes into some detailed about the after effects of long term abuse on a small child, but, given that I adore stories where suspicious grumps get a chance to grow and deal with their trauma, I'm here for it.
Blackkat has been writing a number of really good things for Febuwhump - all in Star Wars, with various levels of angst, and it's got some pretty delightful rarepairs.
What I'm Reading
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Remains fascinating and also very, very confusing in places. Multiple time lines, maaaaybe multiple points of view? I am having a good and confusing time, but I am also aware that I am trying to "solve" the book rather than read it at points, so I took a couple of days off to read a book that is at a lower demand level.
Dark Rise - CS Pacat - First in an upcoming YA trilogy about a boy who might have an important destiny related to a lost civilization that needs to face down a Dark King. I think I have a good idea of what the purported big twist is going to be, but I love CS Pacat's writing so I'm along for the ride. This is also one of a few books that I can really enjoy on audiobook - usually I can only re-read things that way. But this leans into being a little repetive in a way that works for that form of intake for me. (I don't think that it's bad writing, just one that allows me to pay less active attention and not miss things.)
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant for Sci-Fi Book Club
The Good Lord Bird - Discord book club is talking about that Feb 25th, so I should get on that.
Library book amnesty - things had been out long enough that I started to accrue fines, which is the point at which I return things. I have only Frankenstein in Baghdad, which I think I will get to eventually.
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Reading Meme for Feb 1 2023
Feb. 1st, 2023 11:07 amWhat I've Read
Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, the last third of this book is just payoff after payoff - stuff that I was certain was going to be left to be resolved in the next book was just laid out in front of your eyes and it worked so damned well. This was my second attempt to read this book - the first time, just after it came out, I made charts and tried to keep track of all the characters and figure out the mystery of the whole thing, well, I had some trouble. The second time around had a much better result when I just let the whole thing wash over me. I really enjoyed this book and I'm starting on the next one immediately.
Penric's Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold - I am still really enjoying this series, which are short mysteries set in the Chalion universe with a metaphysical 'odd couple'- a young human man with no background in magic is host of a centuries-old demon who has the memories and personalities of nine previous women hosts as part of her constituent parts. They fight crime! It's also got touches of the kind of settled affection that I tend to associate with long-married couples who still adore each other. Penric gets roped into solving murders that are short and clear, with a cast of interesting recurring characters and a boss who is a badass woman in her 70s. The mysteries are a bit straightforward but explore some of the interesting edge cases of how magic in their world works. Fun palette cleansing reads. (I which Bujold had a little more eye for queer relationships in her books but what she does provide is emotionally solid, so, meh.)
I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am - Mardiaz173 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33021898 - Clark Kent/ Bruce Wayne - DC comics universe - This was just a nice short little fic where Superman wants desperately to date Batman, but Bruce Wayne keeps showing Clark a side of himself that few people get to see. Which will our hero choose? (I read this on the recommendation of the podcast Clio/Mireille for their Sept 2022 episode on Superman/Batman Identity Porn fic.) It is a fun fic and a charming podcast.
Living With a Tiger by x_los - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33488392 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Original Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán, post Post-Bingge vs. Bingmei Extra - I am delving at last into the fic for the Scum Villain fandom, and I love the set-up on this. X_los wrote an AU that really delves into a grey version of the characters from the canon, and I really enjoyed it. (If you don't care to read the canon, this is still mostly intelligible on its own.) The tags are accurate.
What I'm Reading
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir has got her hooks in my soul. Like with Gideon the Ninth, I was spoiled by tumblr osmosis for some elements of this book, but I honestly don't think it matters! Starts basically directly after Gideon the Ninth and I am glad I followed my friend's recommendation to start this book immediately upon finishing Gideon, as my poor memory would not have helped with understanding this book. I find these books do very little explicit handholding of like, "Character realized that this new development related back to This Setup from Chapter 2" and yet Muir does indeed set up enough reminders to guide you back to the points you need to recall for the payoff to be satisfying.
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant - Yun Ha Lee - Book Club
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - The library wants this back and I don't want to give it back! I might end up having to buy more of the Ihimaera books I want to read - local libraries are NOT great about having these around, and I am slow.
The Good Lord Bird
Library books
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Unnamed Midwife (whole series)
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Oh, man, the last third of this book is just payoff after payoff - stuff that I was certain was going to be left to be resolved in the next book was just laid out in front of your eyes and it worked so damned well. This was my second attempt to read this book - the first time, just after it came out, I made charts and tried to keep track of all the characters and figure out the mystery of the whole thing, well, I had some trouble. The second time around had a much better result when I just let the whole thing wash over me. I really enjoyed this book and I'm starting on the next one immediately.
Penric's Fox - Lois McMaster Bujold - I am still really enjoying this series, which are short mysteries set in the Chalion universe with a metaphysical 'odd couple'- a young human man with no background in magic is host of a centuries-old demon who has the memories and personalities of nine previous women hosts as part of her constituent parts. They fight crime! It's also got touches of the kind of settled affection that I tend to associate with long-married couples who still adore each other. Penric gets roped into solving murders that are short and clear, with a cast of interesting recurring characters and a boss who is a badass woman in her 70s. The mysteries are a bit straightforward but explore some of the interesting edge cases of how magic in their world works. Fun palette cleansing reads. (I which Bujold had a little more eye for queer relationships in her books but what she does provide is emotionally solid, so, meh.)
I'm Not As Think As You Drunk I Am - Mardiaz173 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33021898 - Clark Kent/ Bruce Wayne - DC comics universe - This was just a nice short little fic where Superman wants desperately to date Batman, but Bruce Wayne keeps showing Clark a side of himself that few people get to see. Which will our hero choose? (I read this on the recommendation of the podcast Clio/Mireille for their Sept 2022 episode on Superman/Batman Identity Porn fic.) It is a fun fic and a charming podcast.
Living With a Tiger by x_los - https://archiveofourown.org/works/33488392 - 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù - Original Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán, post Post-Bingge vs. Bingmei Extra - I am delving at last into the fic for the Scum Villain fandom, and I love the set-up on this. X_los wrote an AU that really delves into a grey version of the characters from the canon, and I really enjoyed it. (If you don't care to read the canon, this is still mostly intelligible on its own.) The tags are accurate.
What I'm Reading
Harrow the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir has got her hooks in my soul. Like with Gideon the Ninth, I was spoiled by tumblr osmosis for some elements of this book, but I honestly don't think it matters! Starts basically directly after Gideon the Ninth and I am glad I followed my friend's recommendation to start this book immediately upon finishing Gideon, as my poor memory would not have helped with understanding this book. I find these books do very little explicit handholding of like, "Character realized that this new development related back to This Setup from Chapter 2" and yet Muir does indeed set up enough reminders to guide you back to the points you need to recall for the payoff to be satisfying.
What I'll Read Next
Phoenix Extravagant - Yun Ha Lee - Book Club
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - The library wants this back and I don't want to give it back! I might end up having to buy more of the Ihimaera books I want to read - local libraries are NOT great about having these around, and I am slow.
The Good Lord Bird
Library books
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Unnamed Midwife (whole series)
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
(no subject)
Jan. 25th, 2023 04:15 pmWhat I've Read
Nothing! I have completed no books, tho I did do a fair bit of fic reading.
I have read a good chunk of fic?
What I'm Reading
Gideon the Ninth - I am officially past the point where I read last time and man, it's darker than I would have expected, but I am really loving it.
I have a number of things in my Storygraph "Reading" section that are possibly getting finished, possibly going to get cleared out.
What I'll Read Next
The Uncle's Story, Witi Ihimaera
The Good Lord Bird
Library books
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Unnamed Midwife
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Nothing! I have completed no books, tho I did do a fair bit of fic reading.
I have read a good chunk of fic?
What I'm Reading
Gideon the Ninth - I am officially past the point where I read last time and man, it's darker than I would have expected, but I am really loving it.
I have a number of things in my Storygraph "Reading" section that are possibly getting finished, possibly going to get cleared out.
What I'll Read Next
The Uncle's Story, Witi Ihimaera
The Good Lord Bird
Library books
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Unnamed Midwife
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Wednesday Reading Meme for Jan 18 2023
Jan. 18th, 2023 12:07 pmWhat I've Read
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film - by Lee Clark Mitchell - This book was read for the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch section on Westerns and while I think it provided useful background on the pre-cinematic roots of the genre in novels and painting, I found that the analysis of filmed works was just fine.
There are times where Mitchell misinterprets a work to suit a contrasting reading of masculinity in two films - Hondo and Shane, for example. Hondo absolutely has a plot about a strange interloping male lead coming to a homestead and getting emotionally involved with an abandoned but still married woman and her son, before getting serious with her after her no-good husband dies - because the male lead kills him! Shane has an strange male interloper, but the move bends over backwards to make sure that the ranch wife and the interloper are never in the same shot alone, and the husband is a clearly heroic figure in his own right - plus the ending where Shane bids his farewell to their son rather than to the wife. Modern viewers would be justified in seeing a triad relationship than seeing infidelity. Mitchell also really ignores the racial dynamics of the genre and the fact that he's analyzing White American masculinity, not something more broad, plus he also doesn't really do audience reception of films at all. For all that I found Monsters in the Closet a bit prosaic in the analysis, it's miles better than this for providing context. But Westerns is from 1996, maybe the author has had a chance to get deeper into these topics since.
I read a BUNCH of fanfic that is just too short of the novel line to count as a novel for my reading purposes:
A Man of Honor by astolat https://archiveofourown.org/works/44251276 36k - Regency AU, queer accepting AU of Jaime/Robb. It's actually massively fealty fic with some fun politicking, I adored this Tyrion. Cersei is Sir Not Appearing In This Fic, the monarchy and the battles are displaced to English Parliament, it's quite fun.
trust is a mobius strip by sinspiration https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394041 35k - Voltron: Legendary Defender, Shiro/Keith -this is just deeply charming example of non-sexual submission and kink in space. When aliens think you are dating, you might be dating. I don't even go here! I have not engaged in this fandom at all! All I know is that they have goofy space lions.
The Desert Storm by Blue_Sunshine 30K https://archiveofourown.org/works/18206480 - this is a truly massive series that is only technically finished because the author moved the second and ongoing portion of the series into a different series altogether. It's absolutely not shippy, it's very focused on Ben Nasaade, aka, Obi-Wan Kenobi from Luke's toddler years, getting magicked back to work with the Jedi in the years leading up to the Clone Wars. It's wonderful in terms of taking Jedi philosophy seriously and involves a lot of the Tatooine slave culture worldbuilding that fanon has put together from other sources (which I need to read). I inhaled the first five pieces of this and was so glad I had it downloaded to read when AO3 had it's maintenance shutdown last week.
ruin 1/12/23 - holy fucking shit 16k
fallout 1/12/23 oh my god 12k
true colors 11223 10K
in crisis 1/13/23 10k
What I'm Reading
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - SFF Book Club - Chugging right along! I feel like I am getting the fun vibe of this book in a way that I really wasn't the first time because, since I first tried to read this, I have actually read some recent YA fiction, so I am slightly more in tune with the tropes that they are pointedly subverting.
When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare - Audiobook, absurd and fun
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 4 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - moved out of hold so that I can read one section that is the basis for shipping two background characters. I might abandon this one after this section.
On Hold but not abandoned
The World We Make by NK Jemisin (Great Cities 2)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
What I'll Read Next
The Uncle's Story, Witi Ihimaera
The Good Lord Bird
Library books
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film - by Lee Clark Mitchell - This book was read for the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch section on Westerns and while I think it provided useful background on the pre-cinematic roots of the genre in novels and painting, I found that the analysis of filmed works was just fine.
There are times where Mitchell misinterprets a work to suit a contrasting reading of masculinity in two films - Hondo and Shane, for example. Hondo absolutely has a plot about a strange interloping male lead coming to a homestead and getting emotionally involved with an abandoned but still married woman and her son, before getting serious with her after her no-good husband dies - because the male lead kills him! Shane has an strange male interloper, but the move bends over backwards to make sure that the ranch wife and the interloper are never in the same shot alone, and the husband is a clearly heroic figure in his own right - plus the ending where Shane bids his farewell to their son rather than to the wife. Modern viewers would be justified in seeing a triad relationship than seeing infidelity. Mitchell also really ignores the racial dynamics of the genre and the fact that he's analyzing White American masculinity, not something more broad, plus he also doesn't really do audience reception of films at all. For all that I found Monsters in the Closet a bit prosaic in the analysis, it's miles better than this for providing context. But Westerns is from 1996, maybe the author has had a chance to get deeper into these topics since.
I read a BUNCH of fanfic that is just too short of the novel line to count as a novel for my reading purposes:
A Man of Honor by astolat https://archiveofourown.org/works/44251276 36k - Regency AU, queer accepting AU of Jaime/Robb. It's actually massively fealty fic with some fun politicking, I adored this Tyrion. Cersei is Sir Not Appearing In This Fic, the monarchy and the battles are displaced to English Parliament, it's quite fun.
trust is a mobius strip by sinspiration https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394041 35k - Voltron: Legendary Defender, Shiro/Keith -this is just deeply charming example of non-sexual submission and kink in space. When aliens think you are dating, you might be dating. I don't even go here! I have not engaged in this fandom at all! All I know is that they have goofy space lions.
The Desert Storm by Blue_Sunshine 30K https://archiveofourown.org/works/18206480 - this is a truly massive series that is only technically finished because the author moved the second and ongoing portion of the series into a different series altogether. It's absolutely not shippy, it's very focused on Ben Nasaade, aka, Obi-Wan Kenobi from Luke's toddler years, getting magicked back to work with the Jedi in the years leading up to the Clone Wars. It's wonderful in terms of taking Jedi philosophy seriously and involves a lot of the Tatooine slave culture worldbuilding that fanon has put together from other sources (which I need to read). I inhaled the first five pieces of this and was so glad I had it downloaded to read when AO3 had it's maintenance shutdown last week.
ruin 1/12/23 - holy fucking shit 16k
fallout 1/12/23 oh my god 12k
true colors 11223 10K
in crisis 1/13/23 10k
What I'm Reading
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - SFF Book Club - Chugging right along! I feel like I am getting the fun vibe of this book in a way that I really wasn't the first time because, since I first tried to read this, I have actually read some recent YA fiction, so I am slightly more in tune with the tropes that they are pointedly subverting.
When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare - Audiobook, absurd and fun
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 4 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - moved out of hold so that I can read one section that is the basis for shipping two background characters. I might abandon this one after this section.
On Hold but not abandoned
The World We Make by NK Jemisin (Great Cities 2)
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
What I'll Read Next
The Uncle's Story, Witi Ihimaera
The Good Lord Bird
Library books
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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
Reading Meme for Jan 11 2023
Jan. 11th, 2023 02:54 pmWhat I've Read
let the river run by Astolat - A Robb/Jaime/Brienne fic about finding a man worth fighting for. It lands it! It really does! I found the ending a bit pat, but overall, I think Astolat is kind of on a roll of "redeem the fallen and hopeless knight by giving him someone worth fighting for" is a dynamic I really enjoy.
Wayward encounter by May_days - This fic is based on one fic I adored and another fic that was influential in small corner of Obi-Wan/Jango Fett fandom, and well, it is novel length and I did read it all.
Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold - Second novella in the Penric and Desdemona series - Bujold writes stories that feel like a well-written mystery that the main characters are figuring out along with you. This is another story where Penric, a devotee of a god whose blessings are sometimes viewed as curses, is put in a place where he's the right man for a job he didn't know he signed up for.
What I'm Reading
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - Honestly, this book is much more fun on the second attempt. I'm taking it much less seriously and I'm not trying to track everything so damned closely.
When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare - Audiobook, absurd and fun
On Hold but not abandoned
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 4 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - on hold
The World We Make by NK Jemisin (Great Cities 2)
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - slightly on hold
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
What I'll Read Next
The Good Lord Bird for the new book group - due after Feb 23
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - information I gathered from elsewhere suggests this is even gayer than I thought
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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. (purchased 1/11/2023) Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and Other Myths about Fatness by Aubrey Gordon
2022 year-end reading meme
Jan. 4th, 2023 05:09 pmLast year I started a book journal and I had some goals around how I was going to use it. I figured that I’d combine some of that thought process with this lovely Year End Reading Meme for 2022.
How many books did you read this year? Any trends in genre/length/themes/etc?
102 that I finished- overwhelmingly in fantasy!
What are your Top 3 books that you read this year?
Of the new books that I read, I think the top few are Some by Virtue Fall by Alex Rowland, The Past is Red by Catherynne Valente, and A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows. I like some angst in my romances.
What's a book you enjoyed more than you expected?
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki - that was just charming and did some fun things with making LA feel amazingly alien and amazingly wonderful.
Which books most disappointed you this year?
I tried to re-read a Kate Elliott book this year from about 20 years ago and it did not hold up.
Did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favorite?
I re-read all of the Murderbot Diaries and most of the Queen of Attolia series! I still need to finish that last one - I tapped out early because I didn’t realize there was another book beyond what I thought was the last one.
What's the oldest book you read?
I think technically I read parts of Dracula for the Dracula Daily project, but, honestly, I didn’t track this much and there wasn’t much in the way of older stuff in my books.
What's the newest book you read?
A lot of the fanfic and the books I read this year were in fact published this year! So, I will select for praise Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell as a great book that came out in Fall 2022.
Did you DNF (= did not finish) any books?
Oh, yes. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames has a fun premise and I thought I would love it but unfortunately, I have very low tolerance for dudebro/laddish stories, so I tapped out early. Also, Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott turned out to be a bummer and I did not finish it.
Did you read any books outside of your usual preferred genre(s)?
I think Battle of the Linguist Mages is not technically outside my genre but also kind of feels like the first of a genre I have never seen before. Technically, Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera is outside my usual genres, but it was also slightly gay, so it's in the family.
What was your predominant format this year?
Digital - I read at least 28 novel-length fanfic that I logged, which were all digitally published, and the majority of my reading is done via my Kindle.
What's the longest book you read this year?
Technically unfinished, Iridan’s a simple thing is over 808K words and would be about 3,500-4,000 pages in traditional publishing. It’s wonderful, read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099556
Of the traditionally published books, I finally finished House of Leaves in January of 2022, which I had started (this time) in August of 2021, and in fact actually started in 2006. It’s 703 pages in the version I have!
What books from your TBR did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022?
The new Victoria Goddard book, At the Feet of the Sun, and Freya Marske’s new book, A Restless Truth - but also a fair few others that I have in a pile from a while back. Including The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, my sister’s favorite book.
Did you reach your reading goal for this year (if you had one)?
I refused to admit a goal and was just working on writing down all the books that I read and logging the novel-length fic. Of course, in practice, this meant that I wanted to get to 100 books and I did!
(Adding this question myself) What author did you read the most?
In terms of unique works, I know that it was almost certainly Blackkat (https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat) who is both incredibly skilled and incredibly prolific and has some wonderfully long works.
In traditionally publishing, it was Martha Wells - the Murderbot Diaries will do that for you!
Some reflections for my own sake
I had some ideas about what to track with this reading journal project back in 2022 and it’s worth reflecting on what did and did not work!
Worked:
-Storygraph as a secondary logging platform, especially once I figured out how to log “Not a Book” items for fanfiction
- Writing up the Wednesday Reading Meme
-Tracking pre-orders - kept me from buying the same book twice a few times. Did not save me from it every time.
-Reading list - I decided to read the whole Hugos nominee list and (while I did not actually get all of them) it was a wonderful expansion of my usual reading habits and I plan to do it again.
What did not work:
-Pretending I did not have a reading goal - I wanted to read 100 books and I did.
-Keeping a paper list of things I wanted to read - I’m not sure this worked or not, but I tend to treat storygraph as my list of record for the TBR pile, with the Weekly Reading Meme as a close follow up.
-Continuous logging - I did end up deciding to start a new section of the journal for 2023.
-Reading with Friends - I don't actually keep up with a group book reading project if there are not scheduled dates to actually read the sections and talk about them.
How many books did you read this year? Any trends in genre/length/themes/etc?
102 that I finished- overwhelmingly in fantasy!
What are your Top 3 books that you read this year?
Of the new books that I read, I think the top few are Some by Virtue Fall by Alex Rowland, The Past is Red by Catherynne Valente, and A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows. I like some angst in my romances.
What's a book you enjoyed more than you expected?
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki - that was just charming and did some fun things with making LA feel amazingly alien and amazingly wonderful.
Which books most disappointed you this year?
I tried to re-read a Kate Elliott book this year from about 20 years ago and it did not hold up.
Did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favorite?
I re-read all of the Murderbot Diaries and most of the Queen of Attolia series! I still need to finish that last one - I tapped out early because I didn’t realize there was another book beyond what I thought was the last one.
What's the oldest book you read?
I think technically I read parts of Dracula for the Dracula Daily project, but, honestly, I didn’t track this much and there wasn’t much in the way of older stuff in my books.
What's the newest book you read?
A lot of the fanfic and the books I read this year were in fact published this year! So, I will select for praise Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell as a great book that came out in Fall 2022.
Did you DNF (= did not finish) any books?
Oh, yes. Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames has a fun premise and I thought I would love it but unfortunately, I have very low tolerance for dudebro/laddish stories, so I tapped out early. Also, Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott turned out to be a bummer and I did not finish it.
Did you read any books outside of your usual preferred genre(s)?
I think Battle of the Linguist Mages is not technically outside my genre but also kind of feels like the first of a genre I have never seen before. Technically, Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera is outside my usual genres, but it was also slightly gay, so it's in the family.
What was your predominant format this year?
Digital - I read at least 28 novel-length fanfic that I logged, which were all digitally published, and the majority of my reading is done via my Kindle.
What's the longest book you read this year?
Technically unfinished, Iridan’s a simple thing is over 808K words and would be about 3,500-4,000 pages in traditional publishing. It’s wonderful, read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29099556
Of the traditionally published books, I finally finished House of Leaves in January of 2022, which I had started (this time) in August of 2021, and in fact actually started in 2006. It’s 703 pages in the version I have!
What books from your TBR did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022?
The new Victoria Goddard book, At the Feet of the Sun, and Freya Marske’s new book, A Restless Truth - but also a fair few others that I have in a pile from a while back. Including The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery, my sister’s favorite book.
Did you reach your reading goal for this year (if you had one)?
I refused to admit a goal and was just working on writing down all the books that I read and logging the novel-length fic. Of course, in practice, this meant that I wanted to get to 100 books and I did!
(Adding this question myself) What author did you read the most?
In terms of unique works, I know that it was almost certainly Blackkat (https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat) who is both incredibly skilled and incredibly prolific and has some wonderfully long works.
In traditionally publishing, it was Martha Wells - the Murderbot Diaries will do that for you!
Some reflections for my own sake
I had some ideas about what to track with this reading journal project back in 2022 and it’s worth reflecting on what did and did not work!
Worked:
-Storygraph as a secondary logging platform, especially once I figured out how to log “Not a Book” items for fanfiction
- Writing up the Wednesday Reading Meme
-Tracking pre-orders - kept me from buying the same book twice a few times. Did not save me from it every time.
-Reading list - I decided to read the whole Hugos nominee list and (while I did not actually get all of them) it was a wonderful expansion of my usual reading habits and I plan to do it again.
What did not work:
-Pretending I did not have a reading goal - I wanted to read 100 books and I did.
-Keeping a paper list of things I wanted to read - I’m not sure this worked or not, but I tend to treat storygraph as my list of record for the TBR pile, with the Weekly Reading Meme as a close follow up.
-Continuous logging - I did end up deciding to start a new section of the journal for 2023.
-Reading with Friends - I don't actually keep up with a group book reading project if there are not scheduled dates to actually read the sections and talk about them.
Reading Meme for Jan 4 2023
Jan. 4th, 2023 03:04 pmWhat I've Read
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System ( Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 3 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - This seems to have been the end of the real arc of the story, and it landed in a good and very tropey place.
if you were a mythical thing by Kangofu_CB - MCU and Marvel Comics (Hawkeye, mostly) - 74K - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42952029 - Bucky/Clint - This is pretty cute and fluffy. Werewolf au without omegaverse elements. Clint Barton, not a superhero, gets in trouble with the Ukrainian mob and flees to a small town where everyone is really, really nice and people keep sniffing him? The werewolf element is cute - I vaguely wanted a little more angst because I love angst related to keeping secrets and this fic was just like, Nah, that's not what we're here for.
Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold - I am legitimately annoyed by how long this took me to read! I bought this book two years ago and just looked at in my stack and didn't read it! But someone on DW read it recently, mentioned that the dynamic between Penric and the demon that inadvertently comes to share his body is really similar to Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote, and welp, here I am, I love this and I bought the next four novellas because my library system doesn't have them all as ebooks. (It was a gift card to Barnes and Noble and I want Lois to have some walkin' around money.)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers - Also a book that I had been sitting on. The first book with these characters, A Psalm for the Wild-Build, came at a deeply needful time and was a great read for the book club. I have a vivid memory from the summer of 2021 of sitting on the back porch in the sun and feeling like the world wasn't doomed. I will love Becky Chambers forever for that book, and this one is a worthy successor. It's calm and introspective and gentle with the foibles of sentient minds.
What I'm Reading
let the river run by Astolat - A Robb/Jaime/Brienne fic about finding a man worth fighting for. This is literally just pure fealty fic.
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 4 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - I think this is a collection of short stories with main and side characters from the main series of this. It's goofy and fun.
The World We Make by NK Jemisin (Great Cities 2) - I love this unabashedly so far.
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - slightly on hold
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
What I'll Read Next
Gideon the Ninth
Library books in the house:
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera - Will abandon, library called it back
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - information I gathered from elsewhere suggests this is even gayer than I thought
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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.
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System ( Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 3 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - This seems to have been the end of the real arc of the story, and it landed in a good and very tropey place.
if you were a mythical thing by Kangofu_CB - MCU and Marvel Comics (Hawkeye, mostly) - 74K - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42952029 - Bucky/Clint - This is pretty cute and fluffy. Werewolf au without omegaverse elements. Clint Barton, not a superhero, gets in trouble with the Ukrainian mob and flees to a small town where everyone is really, really nice and people keep sniffing him? The werewolf element is cute - I vaguely wanted a little more angst because I love angst related to keeping secrets and this fic was just like, Nah, that's not what we're here for.
Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold - I am legitimately annoyed by how long this took me to read! I bought this book two years ago and just looked at in my stack and didn't read it! But someone on DW read it recently, mentioned that the dynamic between Penric and the demon that inadvertently comes to share his body is really similar to Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote, and welp, here I am, I love this and I bought the next four novellas because my library system doesn't have them all as ebooks. (It was a gift card to Barnes and Noble and I want Lois to have some walkin' around money.)
A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers - Also a book that I had been sitting on. The first book with these characters, A Psalm for the Wild-Build, came at a deeply needful time and was a great read for the book club. I have a vivid memory from the summer of 2021 of sitting on the back porch in the sun and feeling like the world wasn't doomed. I will love Becky Chambers forever for that book, and this one is a worthy successor. It's calm and introspective and gentle with the foibles of sentient minds.
What I'm Reading
let the river run by Astolat - A Robb/Jaime/Brienne fic about finding a man worth fighting for. This is literally just pure fealty fic.
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 4 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - I think this is a collection of short stories with main and side characters from the main series of this. It's goofy and fun.
The World We Make by NK Jemisin (Great Cities 2) - I love this unabashedly so far.
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - slightly on hold
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
What I'll Read Next
Gideon the Ninth
Library books in the house:
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera - Will abandon, library called it back
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - information I gathered from elsewhere suggests this is even gayer than I thought
Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna 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.
What I've Read
Hello and welcome to the Between Days, where I have vacation from work and my family has cleared out and I'm mostly free to please myself!
So, uh, instead of reading the things that I said I would read, I read the first two volumes of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù - it's delightfully tropey and a really fun book, tho I don't know if I'm getting all the references to the genre it's goofing on. In some ways, it's got a Northanger Abbey vibe, in that it's satire of a genre that I read before I was particularly familiar with the main genre itself. I find myself a little dissatisfied with some of the translation choices, but I'm aware that's a taste thing.
In fanfic news, I have gone on a Jedusaur re-reading spree and consumed uh, 80K of fic across 12 fic in three fandoms?
The main culprit : This Is Why We Can Have Nice Things by jedusaur - Marvel Comics, Bucky Barnes/ Hawkeye (from the comics, not Renner) https://archiveofourown.org/works/43892967 - In which Clint and Bucky figure out their issues and allow themselves some nice things.
What I'm Reading:
NK Jemisin - The World We Make - Still great, an excellent book to be reading as accompaniment to my current travel.
Still reading (holdovers)
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - slightly on hold
Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Whale Weekly - new chapter in the inbox today (Extracts supplied by a sub-sub-librarian)
Carry On by Tamryn Eradani - on hold
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
Marae - https://archiveofourown.org/works/31072724 - on hold
the weakness of falling in love by roquen https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464324 - The Untamed - Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo - - on hold
What I'll Read Next:
Gideon the Ninth - I now have conned two book clubs into reading this on the same timeline! Muahahaha.
I'm still traveling and I have Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi with me for pleasure reading.
Library books in the house:
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera
Owned and need to read: California Bones, the Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison, 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.
Hello and welcome to the Between Days, where I have vacation from work and my family has cleared out and I'm mostly free to please myself!
So, uh, instead of reading the things that I said I would read, I read the first two volumes of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù - it's delightfully tropey and a really fun book, tho I don't know if I'm getting all the references to the genre it's goofing on. In some ways, it's got a Northanger Abbey vibe, in that it's satire of a genre that I read before I was particularly familiar with the main genre itself. I find myself a little dissatisfied with some of the translation choices, but I'm aware that's a taste thing.
In fanfic news, I have gone on a Jedusaur re-reading spree and consumed uh, 80K of fic across 12 fic in three fandoms?
The main culprit : This Is Why We Can Have Nice Things by jedusaur - Marvel Comics, Bucky Barnes/ Hawkeye (from the comics, not Renner) https://archiveofourown.org/works/43892967 - In which Clint and Bucky figure out their issues and allow themselves some nice things.
What I'm Reading:
NK Jemisin - The World We Make - Still great, an excellent book to be reading as accompaniment to my current travel.
Still reading (holdovers)
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - slightly on hold
Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Whale Weekly - new chapter in the inbox today (Extracts supplied by a sub-sub-librarian)
Carry On by Tamryn Eradani - on hold
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly
Marae - https://archiveofourown.org/works/31072724 - on hold
the weakness of falling in love by roquen https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464324 - The Untamed - Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo - - on hold
What I'll Read Next:
Gideon the Ninth - I now have conned two book clubs into reading this on the same timeline! Muahahaha.
I'm still traveling and I have Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi with me for pleasure reading.
Library books in the house:
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera
Owned and need to read: California Bones, the Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison, 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.
