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Off topic but anyone who uses tumblr - do you have a sense of the current etiquette around crediting someone who made a gif you want to use in a post? Is just doing '

username' on the post cool?

(comment brought to you by a shockingly unpleasant interaction I had with someone on my literal first post in years - they were definitely an asshole but I want to check if they were correct and an asshole or just an asshole)

What I've Read

When the Dead Tree Flowers by Blackkat – https://archiveofourown.org/works/47341819
This is a Star Wars Clone Wars AU focused on minor EU character Granta Omega, who has the complicated power of being invisible in the Force. For this incredibly useful power, he’s kidnapped and held on Kamino and a batch of clones are made using his DNA. This fic takes place just as he escapes, realizes it’s the Domino squad, and goes to find them. Blackkat does great work on establishing just how damaged Granta was by his childhood as a tool of his father’s revenge, and builds a fascinating set of relationships between Granta and his clone children – family for a group of clones who never expected to have a parent who cared, found family for Granta adopting the clones who helped him in captivity, and there’s a hint of a romance with one clone…. The story is 170K and stops at a good place but clearly doesn’t actually finish the plot Blackkat has in mind.

You Wired Me Awake by

thefourthvine
https://archiveofourown.org/works/63881242
Star Trek alternate original series movies AU – Jim Kirk is a werewolf at the end of his leash. (lol) He’s sentenced to The Academy, which puts supernatural creatures like him to good use, but only if they bow and scrape and never aim for anything ambitious in life. Spock is a vampire. This fic has them conspiring to handle things that human society would prefer they not touch, and it’s so so much fun. Imagine if Kirk and Spock had to conspire against evil Star Trek for the good of the world! TheFourthVine shifts all the tech to magic, but keeps it hard and complex and interesting. Part 1 of a series, this fic is complete but the series is not.

Fingers Crossed That I’m Something You’ll Keep by

thefourthvine
https://archiveofourown.org/works/55775611
It (movies Muschietti) Alternate Universe – Everybody lives
I do not go to this fandom! I have neither read the book nor seen the movie, and yet, here I am, enjoying this strange traumatized man become a school admin and fall in love with a dickish traumatized parent. This might be canon compliant or not but it’s mostly extremely cute.

What I’m Reading
City of Lies by Sam Hawke – 38% - I am technically re-reading this but have no actual knowledge of the book’s plot. Did I finish this?
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan – 40% ish
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman

What I’ll Read Next
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

Reading Journal for March 12 2025

I skipped a week? Which is weird bc I absolutely wrote up last weeks journal and then … never posted it. Life comes at you fast sometimes.

What I’ve Read

Conclave – Robert Harris – I picked this up after watching the movie, and I’m more and more impressed with how close the film kept the story line and how many of the book’s details would have not played well on screen. It’s a loving condemnation of the Roman Catholic leadership, and a very fun read. If you like the movie and are also into art or politics, I recommend it.

Amongst Dust Breathing Souls by Blackkat – Star Wars Clone Wars Era AU focused on a minor Jedi character from the movies called A’Sharad Hett - https://archiveofourown.org/works/55747861 This is just such a detailed and careful fic. Hett is a Tusken, and in the brief comics appearance he gets, he learns of Anakin’s massacre of a Tusken tribe but, because of plot, keeps the secret. This takes that canon event and fleshes out WHY you’d keep that secret, what the impact would be, and how much the process of changing your mind would take a vast effort of personal healing. Loved this. Unabashedly recommend this.

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck – A novella about a man in a hell specifically for him – having followed the wrong religion in life (not Zoroastrianism), he is condemned to remain in a library of books until he finds his autobiography. It’s a strange book – the prose is very clear and embellished and it reminds me strongly of a Piranesi. It’s magical realism? I guess? I wasn’t annoyed at the book while I read it but I’m a bit miffed at it in retrospect – I think it could have gone deeper into the dark elements of the soul that it was trying to get into.

a star to steer by norcumi – a re-read ! I apparently have read this three times, and it remains an excellent and confusing work of fiction. A Star War Clone Wars fusion AU with Stargate – a really weird vision for both worlds, but what I really enjoy about this fic is the actual work of cultural exchange and mutual understanding that happens in this fic – sometimes messily! The characters from Stargate are largely unchanged from their TV show versions except the question if they’d encountered better allies earlier in the show, with more interest in helping them, and demanding that humans become more compassionate to the victims of the mind-controlling Stargate aliens.

Softer Arena Slave AU - https://archiveofourown.org/series/4025155 – a great Soulmates AU that focuses on Obi-Wan Kenobi, abandoned teenage Jedi, being found with Jango Fett’s soulmate mark – only not by Jango! Instead it’s Jaster Mereel, Jango’s adopted father, who assumed that Jango was dead until he saw the proof on Obi-Wan’s skin that Jango still lives! It’s a great story and very interested in Mandalorian culture.

What I’m Reading
City of Lies by Sam Hawke – 28% - I am technically re-reading this but have no actual knowledge of the book’s plot.

When the Dead Tree Flowers by Blackkat – Star Wars Clone Wars AU focused on minor EU character Granta Omega – God I love this and I really should finish it

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan – 40% ish
Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited b y Rowena Chapman
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%

What I’ll Read Next
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

Reading Journal Feb 26 2025

Personal updates: Work continues skittish but other wise fine. The baby blanket is past the halfway point and it’s going on pretty well.

Cut for some personal discussion about deciding to not have kids and family being weird.( Read more... )

What I’ve Read
System Collapse! Final book in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I seem slight doomed to keep re-reading this series, a delightful limbo. Literally every time I finish this series a new book group or friend picks it up.

What I’m Reading
Conclave – Robert Harris – I picked this up after watching the movie, and I’m more and more impressed with how close the film kept the story line and how many of the book’s details would have not played well on screen. It’s a loving condemnation of the Roman Catholic leadership.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan – Stalled out but I’ll get back to it.

Kingdom of Copper – about 40%

Wool (The Omnibus Edition) by Hugh Howey – 9% - Weird and interesting but I haven’t hit any major places where the show diverged except tonally.

Male Order – Unwrapping Masculinity -edited by Rowena Chapman - Communist essays about masculinity in England from like 1990 - fascinating. I really think everyone should read political discussions from past decades, it really gives you scope.

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%

What I’ll Read Next
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

Reading Journal Feb 19 2025

Personal updates: Life continues steadily on course?

I picked up the yarn for the baby blanket I have been planning for an upcoming birth so I’ve been reading less and watching more TV. I'm adding that at the end.

What I’ve Read
Nothing to completion.

What I’m Reading
System Collapse – my book club picked this out so I’m re-reading it and God, Murderbot Diaries are good. The longer the books go, the more in depth they get about Murderbot’s trauma and healing and that really hits a spot just now.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan - I first read this before it came out, when Brennan was just doing a LJ fic for fun. Some of the bones of that still show – the pacing feels a bit like longer posts strung together with a bit of “time passed in between adventures” but I don’t mind that at all.

Kingdom of Copper – about 35% - remains good, haven’t touch it in a week

Wool (The Omnibus Edition) by Hugh Howey – 9% - Weird and interesting but I haven’t hit any major places where the show diverged except tonally.

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%0

What I’ll Read Next
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

What I’ve Watched
I keep wondering about doing a post about The Penguin, in which Colin Farrell dons a fat suit and fake limp to portray a man who is murderous from a very young age, because I do find fat suits dehumanizing and gross! I would have forgiven this series a lot of it sins of cliches and inconsistent plotting, if they had just given this role to an actual fat actor or a disabled one. But, no, they invented a man whose main role in comics is "be fat and wear a tux and do crime" and added disability and child murder. Woo. Funsies.

In a single evening, I binged most Creature Commandos, where each character felt interesting and cared about and some of them got excellent endings and some of them got to try being better people. I have one left so they might fuck up the ending but…. I think it will be okay.

Reading Journal Feb 12 2025

Personal updates: My job has gotten rather stressful in new ways recently, due to politics. I’m not directly impacted by anything, yet, but there are some potential problems that could arise if announced plans are allowed to go thru - my household has been down one job for several months now and I would like my job to remain incredibly boring and reliable until we can get back to dual income. Fingers crossed.

I had a lovely time last week dog-sitting my parents’ newish greyhound, who is a himbo made out of stilts. He’s adapting to being a pet very well, having been one for less than a financial quarter, and had excellent household manners. (Alas, he remains loud when meeting other dogs and so I was not confident enough to let him work thru it to make friends.)

I would like to get my own dog, but, well, that seems like a financial commitment for a slightly more settled time.

What I’ve Read
Locke and Key Vol 2 and 3 by Joe Hill – This comic series continues to be great and quite creepy. I’m enjoying the art a great deal – honestly, some of the art in Vol 2 where a child finds a magic key that opens his head and allows you to rummage thru his mind via metaphor is some of the creepiest fantasy I’ve seen in a while. It’s both just a cartoon and also really weird.

Honorable mention to System Collapse, which I did not re-read for my book club, but which I got to talk about with some people and had a lovely time.

What I’m Reading
Kingdom of Copper – about 35% - much much faster and more tangled than the first book. Highly recommend picking this up if you found the first book a slog – all the payoff is here for the last book and they are not pulling any punches.

Wool (The Omnibus Edition) by Hugh Howey – I picked this up after watching the series, Silo, on Apple TV, which is good and also somewhat different. I’m just not sure where the series will land but I did enjoy it and I do think that the characters work slightly better in print than in the series. Actors have to act to portray things, a book can just give you the characters thoughts directly.

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%0

What I’ll Read Next
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

Reading Journal Feb 05 2025

What I’ve Read
Held in Hearts by Marchling - https://archiveofourown.org/works/38604081 - part iii of the enormous AU fic of The Fast and the Furious where soulmates are real but PTSD is realer. It’s deeply self indulgent.

What I’m Reading
Kingdom of Copper
Locke and Key vol 2 – Joe Hill
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%0

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Kingdom of Copper
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

Reading Journal Jan 29 2025

What I’ve Read
Strange Practice –Vivian Shaw – This reminded me of a bunch of “London has a secret magical underground” novels that were actually better. This has all the hallmarks of a series that will be a billed as “A Main Character Mystery TM” in the future and I wish the author all the best with that. As a beach read, very fun. The main character is a doctor to the creatures of London and someone has started to attack them. (Minor whorephobia in dialogue mentions)

(I logged City of Brass last week so I’ll not double up on it – but the friends who have read it suggest that the first book does a huge amount of set up for the rest o the series and so I’ll report back when I have read the rest of the books)

What I’m Reading

Locke and Key vol 2 – Joe Hill

Held in Hearts by Marchling - https://archiveofourown.org/works/38604081 - part iii of the enormous AU fic of The Fast and the Furious where soulmates are real but PTSD is realer. It’s deeply self indulgent.

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%0

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
California Bones
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Kingdom of Copper
Empire of Gold
Madness of Angels Kate Griffin
City of Lies
The Memory Librarian

I had a great time at Arisia and took a good deal of notes about books I heard about - some of these are classics that I have just never heard of, and some of them are actually new projects by the panelists! I am really looking forward to these, so I thought I would share.

(Mind you, the Hugo nominations have to open sometime soon, so I'm bound to have to pivot to those soonish)

Tune in Tomorrow Randee Dawn
The Heroine's Journey: Woman's Quest for Wholeness Maureen Murdock
City Clifford D. Simak
Gods of Jade and Shadow Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Catspaw Joan D. Vinge
Kingdoms of Elfin Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Tethered Mage Melissa Caruso
Lolly Willowes Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Day Before the Revolution Ursula K. Le Guin
The Fortunate Fall Cameron Reed
The Dancers of Noyo Margaret St. Clair
The Snow Queen Joan D. Vinge
ReInception Sarena Straus
Moonwise Greer Gilman
Lud-in-the-Mist Hope Mirrlees
The Princess and the Goblin George MacDonald
The Dragon Waiting John M. Ford
Silverlock John Myers Myers
Lost Wonderland: The Brief and Brilliant Life of Boston's Million Dollar Amusement Park Stephen R. Wilk
The Bear and the Nightingale Katherine Arden
Omnivore Piers Anthony
Cloud and Ashes: Three Winter's Tales Greer Gilman
A House-Boat on the Styx John Kendrick Bangs
Living Alone Stella Benson
The Venetian Glass Nephew Elinor Wylie
Captain Antifer Jules Verne
Whit Iain Banks

Reading Journal Jan 23 2025
How are folks doing? It's been a fucking week. I hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves.

I had a nice weekend! I went to a scifi/fantasy convention and got some great new book suggestions and I have a great deal of hope and faith in the kindness of people restored. The world is not all bad - sometimes people invite you to hit things with swords and tell you about how terrible most Jules Verne translations are.

What I’ve Read
Marked in Trust – Marchling – https://archiveofourown.org/series/2317160
This is a re-read of a long and thorny recovery fic. A soulmates AU to the first Fast and Furious movie, teenage Brian gets sprung from juvie into the care of his newly found soulmate, Dominic – only Brian absolutely hates the idea of soulmates and never wanted to meet Dom, much less live with him. It’s slow, there’s multiple 100K stories in this series, I’m re-reading the ones I already knew, including….

Bound in Love – Marchling - #2 in the series – https://archiveofourown.org/works/32662693 No way to talk about it without spoiler for the first fic, but slow and detailed and an excellent re-read.

Return of the King – Tolkien, narrated by Robert Inglis. Oh, wow the ending of this snuck up on me – I didn’t realize the audiobook would include all the appendices, so I wasn’t prepared! I ended up crying – the book is so much kinder and more interested in Frodo and his suffering, it feels a little absurd that the epic fantasy genre has just left the hobbits behind. This is a war story that happens to be in a fantasy world, and like all war stories, no happy ending could be anything but bittersweet. Deeply touching, entirely worth it, I’m going to punch Peter Jackson in the back of the head if I ever get the chance.

Catwings – Ursula Le Guin – Picked up a copy of this childhood favorite at a stall at a con! I didn’t realize how much of the book I would still have memorized. A joy to re-read.

City of Brass – Shannon Chakraborty – It’s not a bad story, I think but there’s just too much book in this book. The worldbuilding is clearly really engaging to the author, and I don’t think it’s bad, but the interesting political bits of the plot were immensely slow to develop. It’s also the first book in a trilogy and the book ends on a cliffhanger that doesn’t really bring a conclusion to it. So, I suspect I will read on just to see what happens. It would be manageable if it were a little bit funny or more fun to read.

What I’m Reading
California Bones – I picked up a short story by Greg Van Eekhout in a magazine (Uncanny or Clarksworld, not sure) and it made me want to pick up this book that I have had on my To Read List – Someone on Dreamwidth liked it, can’t recall who but thanks for the rec!

Strange Practice –Vivian Shaw – Xing Book Club -This is probably good but the Englishness of the audiobook narrator, but I’m not having a great time. It’s meh.

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
Long Live Evil
The Route of Ice and Salt (gay and dracula and boats)
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Kingdom of Copper
Empire of Gold

Reading Journal Jan 15 2025

What I’ve Read
Nothing to completion but lots of progress.

What I’m Reading
City of Brass – Necromancy Book Club – 57% - I need to finish this for the book club this weekend. I think this is maybe thin gruel in terms of plot but the author is good on the sentence level and the world building is based on a mythology I’m quite unfamiliar with, so I’m having a good time overall. I really wish I had a better sense of story, overall

Marked in Trust by Marchling – re-read of a long ass fic that I love – Fast and Furious soulmates AU where Dom and Brian meet when Brian is a teen rather than a cop.

Strange Practice –Vivian Shaw – Xing Book Club -This is probably a fine book but the Englishness of the audiobook narrator, but I’m not having a great time. I have resolved to be more generous - plenty of good books are written by English people, why does the narrator just have to have the most irritating RP accent?

The Return of the King – 77% – Audiobook continues to be wonderful. I realized only today that this version seems to include the appendices, so I perhaps am much closer to the end of the story than I realized – the Shire has been Scoured and Rosie Cotton got some personality, so the narrator has started giving us a bit of future Shire info and I’m wondering when the ending will hit me. (Bill the Pony!)

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi

Reading Journal Jan 8 2025

What I’ve Read
He Who Drowned the World – Shelley Parker-Chan – This is the sequel to She Who Became the Sun and it’s fucking fantastic. Really loves putting the characters in situations, really willing to stare deeply into the consequences of their actions, kind of utterly wonderful about the whole thing. Really an amazing book with a real focus on characters unfolding over time. These people feel a little bit monstrous and a little bit victims and all over inevitable.

Harrow County Vol 2 – Twice Told – Cullen Bunn – This graphic novel does interesting set up but the payoff has so far been a bit less punchy than I hope for. A bit of the superhero rule of returning to the status quo at the end of the story? If the library has more, I’ll keep reading but I’m not super pumped. The art remains great.

Flyaway – Kathleen Jennings – A bit fairy tale, a bit supernatural, very Australian. I feel a bit like when I started reading Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation and I was new to the genre and couldn’t tell what was innovation and what was convention. Disorienting but not in a bad way. I think I will keep this to re-read. The physical book is quite lovely.

Locke and Key – Vol 1 – Welcome to Lovecraft – Joe Hill – This book HIT. It absolutely did not pull its punches, and given that its a horror, it really works. The slow build from normal awful human tragedy to supernatural distortions of the normal world, until things kind of explode. I’m very very interested to see what will happen next.

What I’m Reading
City of Brass -Cute but the story just feels a little preachy.
The Return of the King – 55% - Good lord. The ring is melted but we still have so much book left!
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi

Year End Reading Meme for 2024

How many books did you read this year? Any trends in genre/length/themes/etc?
101. I count audiobooks, graphic novels, fanfic over 50K, and even traditional books with no pictures!

What are your Top 3 books that you read this year?
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland, Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher, and Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

What's a book you enjoyed more than you expected?
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery and Dolores Clairborne by Stephen King

Which books most disappointed you this year?
All My Bicycles by Powerpaola – a graphic novel and it was just not that engaging. Also, Romancing Mister Bridgerton was not really landing with me.

Did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favorite?
Murderbot! Re-read the whole series again.

What's the oldest book you read?
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett – this was arguably her most popular book during her lifetime, but her work focusing on girls has had a longer tail. It’s from 1886

What's the newest book you read?
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke – published October 20 2024

Did you DNF (= did not finish) any books?
A bunch – Gild I bailed on for being goofy, A Court of Mist and Fury because I found the writing really bland.

Did you read any books outside of your usual preferred genre(s)?
I read Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, which was fine mystery but really too English. I also read Horrorstor, which was a fascinatingly constructed book because it looks like an ikea catalogue and the book is set inside a giant furniture store.

What was your predominant format this year?
Digital and audibook.

What's the longest book you read this year?
Dune, according to storygraph, but I would count The Power Broker audibooks as the longest bc the audiobook is broken into three parts. But I didn’t actually finish the whole three, soooo.

What books from your TBR did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022?
I just finished He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan, which was wonderfully written and had a great grasp of character.

Did you reach your reading goal for this year (if you had one)?
I had two sorts of goals, actually. Read 100 books (same goal I’ve had for three years or so now) and read longer books. Turns out, those goals don’t play well together! So I barely made it under the wire. I ended up reading a lot of graphic novels.

(Adding this question myself) What author did you read the most?
T. Kingfisher! I read 7 books by T Kingfisher, all traditionally published. If we are counting fanfiction, then I read the most from Alexandra Rowland aka Ariaste, because I read 6 of their original books and 2 novel length fanfics.

Any thoughts on reading in 2024?
My reading goals were big this year! I still have some left to finish in the new year, but they will get done eventually – this includes finishing the Power Broker by Robert Caro.

I realized after the election, that well, my mental health was suffering and that reading books was harder – I had less focus and energy to read in November 2024 as a whole. While it got better, I am giving myself some leeway on the gap between my performance and my goals. Reading something counts, and if that means we fudge the numbers, so be it.

I had a minor subgoal – Storygraph tracks “streaks” aka continuous days of reading, and over a year ago I had a streak going over 212 days and lost it somehow. I mostly remember being annoyed about the whole thing because I had done the reading but not received the credit. A couple of weeks ago, I hit and passed my old longest streak, and my new subgoal is to read every day this year.

I also found out that you can log magazine issues (at least for Clarkesworld) on Storygraph, so I might start doing that - short stories were a good place for me to be after the election when I was trying to read again.

Year End Reading Meme for 2024

How many books did you read this year? Any trends in genre/length/themes/etc?

What are your Top 3 books that you read this year?

What's a book you enjoyed more than you expected?

Which books most disappointed you this year?

Did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favorite?

What's the oldest book you read?

What's the newest book you read?

Did you DNF (= did not finish) any books?

Did you read any books outside of your usual preferred genre(s)?

What was your predominant format this year?

What's the longest book you read this year?

What books from your TBR did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022?

Did you reach your reading goal for this year (if you had one)?

(Adding this question myself) What author did you read the most?

Reading Journal up to Jan 1 2025

What I’ve Read

Marry Me A Little: A Graphic Memoir by Robert Kirby – a sweet cartoon memoir around the author’s marriage to his husband in 2013 (two years before the national legalization of gay marriage in the US). It’s sweet, the political moment was hopeful and vulnerable, and it was written just after the first Trump administration ended, so, a nice time period to visit.

All My Bicycles by Powerpaola, translated by Andrea Rosenberg. A graphic memoir in bicycles. It’s not wildly engaging, I think I was turned off by the art style.

Ex Machina Vols 1, 2, and 3 by Brian K. Vaughan– A deeply weird visit to the early 2000s. The comic ran from 2004-2010 and the whole thing feels like edgelord superheroes doing The West Wing. The main character, Mitchell Hundred, is a former superhero with the power to control machines, now mayor of New York as an independent. The tone is that politics are about little power struggles and making decisions with the authority of the office, rather than, say, having beliefs about how to build the best city that keeps people the most happy and safe. The thing is, it’s also got a decently engaging superhero plot about Hundred’s short stint as a masked vigilante and the source of his powers, but there is just a horrible lack of actual beliefs in the politics. I might go thru and finish the series for the sake of completion, but it seems highly cynical overall. I suspect that this had a stronger moment at the time. The first issue might actually really hit if you were old enough to remember 9/11.

Harrow County Vol 1 – Countless Haints by Cullen Bunn – Creepy! It’s horror with a bit of decent character work and I think it might be setting up something for the second volume (which I happen to have out from the library)

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke – A late entry to the 2024 final day of ready, because it literally game in the mail from a friend! I love Susanna Clarke, and this is an illustrated short story of a woman who is more at home in the woods than in the normal world.

What I’m Reading
Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings- about halfway, it’s Australian and I’m not sure what is the author’s creation or local myth.
The Return of the King – 42% -
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
He Who Drowned the World – 59%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi
City of Brass

Reading Journal Dec 28 2024

Well, it’s not Wednesday but here we are anyways
I think my next post will be a Reading Year in Review style retrospective, so I figured I would take the chance to get this week's reading logged properly.

What I’ve Read
The Archive Undying - Emma Mieko Candon – Xing Book Club – A deeply weird book, but I enjoyed reading it at a sentence level and a character level, so the fact that the story made little sense was largely fine. It did improve on the second half of the book, but I also gave up on the audiobook and went to read it with my eyes because I was not tracking the change in narrator well enough on the audiobook. (Sometimes I wonder if a particular book is made for re-reading, so that you’re supposed to have more fun the second time thru, and I suspect I would like this book more on a second read.) The worldbuilding is interesting in a slightly chaotic way and I felt fairly shocked that so much had happened in the world backstory and it was all in just three years. Slight body horror of the ‘sharing a brain and merging personalities’ style.

Swordcrossed by Freya Marske - I bought this when it came out bc I love the author - a really fun read. Lots of background information about making fabric supplied a really interesting world, I enjoyed a great deal of the characterization and the whole process of having thoughts about how to find happiness when you’re used to putting yours on hold for duty. Solid book choice and Marske’s work is incredibly readable.

What I’m Reading

The Return of the King – 51% - 8 hours to go and not too much driving in sight, but we have gotten to the point where the Frodo and Sam are disguised as orcs and working on getting to Mt Doom.
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
He Who Drowned the World – 59%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 10%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi
City of Brass

Reading Journal Dec 18 2024

What I’ve Read

People Ruin Beautiful Things by MsSolo - https://archiveofourown.org/works/19142626 – Tim Drake/ Ra’s al Ghul - This was delightful and mostly about Tim Drake getting an enforced vacation with some excellent dicking down from…. Well, the oldest man alive. It’s great and involves more horny poetry than I was expecting.

The Story of You (unfinished) by romiress https://archiveofourown.org/works/34318459 - This is a Clark Kent/Bane fanfic where Clark is not superman and Bane is working to overthrow the tyrannical government of his home country. It’s carefully written and I really enjoyed it – this re-read came bc I was revisiting some Bane-centric fanfic (this is so so little of it) and this cuts off in a place that is just long enough to count it as a novel so I'm going to.

What I’m Reading

The Archive Undying -50% Xing Book Club – this book is very confusing but I think I’m here for it ? the sentence based writing is kind of wonderful
The Return of the King – 42% -
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 52%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
He Who Drowned the World – 59%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 5%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Swordcrossed
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi
City of Brass

Reading Journal

What I’ve Read
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix – This is my first book by Grady Hendrix, and I think it was good! Not wild or stellar or really got its hooks into me, but solid and well structured. (I was doing the thing where I was mentally re-writing individual lines while I read to be punchier, so this might be a personal taste thing – I felt like the sentence level writing was a bit dull while the story structure and editing were very solid.)This book really shines in the arena of design – physical copies of the book are structured to look like an Orsk catalogue, the in-universe Ikea knock-off furniture store that is the setting for the horrific events that happen to the main characters. You will get more out of this book if you have been to an Ikea, but I don’t think it’s required homework.

Daniel Molloy’s Incredible Showstopping World-Famous Model Train Extravaganza for Children and Easily-Awed Vampires (Please Knock) by Ariaste https://archiveofourown.org/works/60371995 – This is a book canon Interview with the Vampire novel length work in which Daniel Molloy, who has been mad for several decades, gets vampire antidepressants and goes about seducing his maker. It is delicious and historical and makes me completely unsure if I should re-read the books or never re-read the books. Very Daniel and Armand focused, very sexy.

What I’m Reading
Honorable mention for a work in progress that came out of hibernation after … (pause for math)…. 9 years, 9 months, 25 days – Cut All the Flowers by Smugrobotics
( https://archiveofourown.org/works/646619/navigate )– a NolanVerse Batman movies Bane/John Blake soulmate AU fic that takes place after the events of The Dark Night Rises. This fic is delicious and thorny and really scratches a particular mental itch for me (yeah, actually, it would be a problem to be cosmically bound to a guy who tried to kill your whole city) , and Smugrobotics came back from hiatus with a BANGER of a chapter… and then followed it up with fireworks1 It’s a delight, I have gone and re-read the whole work as it stands, I just needed to share the good news. It’s a WIP so it’s in the ‘what I’m reading’ category but it’s great stuff if you liked that particular pairing. I'm having a bit of a Bane renaissance as a result.

The Archive Undying -20%
The Return of the King – 38% -
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 46%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
He Who Drowned the World – 59%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 5%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Swordcrossed
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi
City of Brass

Reading Journal Dec 4 2024
(edited bc the initial formatting was very wonky)

What I’ve Read
Into the Brighter Night – (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20935463) Shoalsea – A great fanfic that delves into Tim Drake and the many many roles he plays in his family and his various teams. People try to communicate – not great! But they are trying. It’s great.

Jackalope Wives and Other Stories - T. Kingfisher – Honestly just great. The stories I have already talked about were generally all great, there are some poems that I think deserve a re-read. Honestly, great work here.

What I’m Reading
The Return of the King – 38% - I grow more convinced that JRR Tolkien deserves to fight Peter Jackson in a duel. Horrorstor – Grady Hendrix - like 30% - it’s a goofy book format and I’m looking forward to getting into the deeper plot
Love Potion for the Alpha – Alice Coldbreath (not her best work but short and fun) – 75%
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 46%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
The Archive Undying -12% Restarted – I think I was distracted when I first listened, this is going much better
He Who Drowned the World – 59%

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31% Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 5%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Swordcrossed
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi
The City of Brass - Fun with Necromancy book club

I spent the day in the car, it seems - there was a bit of visiting with family and hanging out with their new dog, who is a charmer but still kind of a wild creature learning to be a pet, and hard to photograph due to his dark coat. I feel like early December is the Thursday of the year - so close to being done with work! and yet! There's family but no travel in my upcoming holiday plans so I'm not quite sure how it make it feel "vacation-y" - I like having the break! Maybe I'll do some home maintenance stuff...

Reading Journal Nov 27 2024

I'm still having trouble giving reading my full concentration, but on the other hand, I think I am doing better when I avoid constantly getting spammed with political news.

What I’ve Read
The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien (actually finished Nov 16th but I didn’t write it down.) Of the two books of the Lord of the Rings, I think this differed from my memories of the film the most, and I think I now understand better some of the critiques of Jackson’s adaptations (great tho they are as films.) Specifically, Faramir and Sam both get much more complex treatments in this book than in the film, deeply enjoyed seeing them. I do have a pet theory that Shelob being defeated by Galadriel’s light connects in some way to Tolkien’s Catholic views of holy and impure womanhood, but that’s a different post.

What I’m Reading

The Return of the King – 4% - Denethor is being rude to Gandalf.
Love Potion for the Alpha – Alice Coldbreath (not her best work but short and fun) – 75%
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 46%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
The Archive Undying -12% Restarted – I think I was distracted when I first listened, this is going much better
He Who Drowned the World – 59%
Jackalope Wives – 48%
Into the Brighter Night by shoalsea - looooong character focused Batfamily story, focused on Tim Drake and his many facets. Really loving it. about 50% of the way thru.

Static:
The Lottery and Other Stories – 44%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 5%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%

What I’ll Read Next

It was my birthday recently, so I went to a used book store and got myself some presents, including Octavia Butler’s Sewer duology and Horrorstor, which looks like a creepy IKEA catalog - I'm looking forward to reading it in front of people and confusing them!

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Petals on the Wind
Swordcrossed
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi

Reading Journal Nov 20 2024

What I’ve Read
Paladin’s Strength – T Kingfisher – Mere hours after my late reading post last week, I finished this book! I was surprised to get such a compelling answer to the mystery started in the previous book, when there are several more novels to go. While there are new threads of complication to delve into, the source of the horrible Smooth Men is revealed – and because it’s T. Kingfisher, it’s written with such emotional care and pathos that it really hit.

Because I’ve been having trouble focusing on reading as much as I usually do, I have pivoted to short story collections.

“Colloquy” by Shirley Jackson, in The Lottery and Other Stories – Available online here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1944/08/05/colloquy
When I finished this, I when to look up the original publication date because, by god, this hit. A woman goes to her doctor and becomes frantic about how complicated and insane the world she lives in has become. It’s very short, barely two pages, and dances on the line of questioning whether the woman is insane or the world, and refuses to pin it down. Frantic confusion and embarrassment in a very shot piece of writing. Pairs well with “The Intoxicated,” the first book in this story collection.
I bought this book in Picador Classic format, which is a sturdy little pocket-sized hardcover book with sewn binding. The binding and the size were points of nostalgia – I spent a childhood with a book in my pocket to assuage boredom and cultivated a collection of favorites in a similar size range. These days I have a smartphone and a Kindle, but books of short stories make excellent pocket companions.

From Jackalope Wives by T. Kingfisher, I have read “Godmother,” “Jackalope Wives,” “Wooden Feathers,” and “Editing,” of which only Wooden Feathers and Editing were entirely new to me – Wooden Feathers doesn’t repeat the themes of Paladin’s Strength, but they rhyme in particular ways, and focus on the relationship of the artist and their art as reinforcing of the best and worst of each other. “Editing” is a very very short story, and I am tempted to simply transcribe it because I want to stuff it directly into the brain of every writer I have ever met .
Edit: I read also "Bird Bones" (which feels like it should haven been written after Covid but was written three years before) and "That Time With Bob and the Unicorn" which is a hilarious romp.

What I’m Reading

Love Potion for the Alpha – Alice Coldbreath (not her best work but short and fun)
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – 46%
Power Broker – Audiobook Part 3 – 1%
The Archive Undying -12% (Going to restart, this did not work for me as an audiobook)
He Who Drowned the World – 34%
Ash: A Secret History – 23%
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 5%
Count of Monte Cristo 48%
The Lottery and Other Stories – 31%
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – 31%

What I’ll Read Next

Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
The Archive Undying
Petals on the Wind
Swordcrossed
Strange Practice
The Centre -Sidiqi

Unrelated to books, I have finished The Terror, which was exactly as good as people said it was and better, and I started reading some of the fic and by God, that's also really good!
Started working on an entrelac scarf as a knitting project. I finished my update/lengthening of a sweater I made years ago to crop-top length – now I can wear it again!