Kitewithfish

Reading Meme for May 24, 2023

Wed, 24 May 2023 17:50:08 GMT

What I’ve Read
A Star To Steer By – By Norcumi – I had read this last December and very much enjoyed it, but there was something very charming about it this time around to really just soak it all in again.

Not a book – I caught up to Malevolent Podcast by Harlan Guthrie, which started as “very much my thing” and transcended that into categories of “Entirely My Thing.” This is a high stakes three legged race through eldritch horrors and the darkest part of the human heart, with two people who have come thru fire and fundamentally take care of each other. It’s wonderful, not for the squeamish.

I actually decided to go on and listen to the whole of Guthrie’s newest podcast, Deviser, which is a much darker story than Malevolent but has some very real interesting bones to it – the question of what it means to be human, the cost of having a body, the disorientation of having one person be your only source of information and to have them be untrustworthy – great stuff, about ten times as violent

So, I have some finally been able to read the fanfic, and it has some real bangers.

What I’m Reading
The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers – 1895 – 17% This is one of those classic weird fiction collections, it came up a lot in Malevolent and I figured, free on Gutenberg, not bad. I am trying to read each short story on its own so I have just finished “The Repairer of Reputations” – Definitely some content warnings for colonialism, anti-semitism, abilism, and views of mental illness that are real real bad.

Watchmaker’s Daughter – by CJ Archer – 43% - Discord bookclub- Decent romance novel with some fantasy elements, tho I suppose true readers of Romance would find this to be a fantasy novel with some romance elements. I will withhold judgment on the book, since I haven’t finished it. I’m enjoying it more as an audiobook than the straightforward read.

Babel – Xing Book Club – 16% Moderately devastating.
Dracula Daily
Carry On Tamryn Eradani -static -37%
Post Mortem File 3 by Furiosophie – on hold until I finish Rebels and some other books, sadly.
Freefall – Umei_No_Mai – lost steam

What I’ll Read Next
Dowry of Blood (Necromancers Book Club)
Watchmaker’s Daughter (Discord Book Club)
Count of Monte Cristo (Discord Book Club)

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

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Wednesday Reading Meme for April 5 2023

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 19:06:02 GMT

What 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: ~~Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi, True Colors by Karen Traviss~~

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Wednesday Reading Meme - March 29 2023

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:25:22 GMT

What 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~~

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Reading Meme for February 15 2023

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 21:28:09 GMT

What 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

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.

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Wednesday Reading Meme for Feb 8 2023

Tue, 07 Feb 2023 20:31:14 GMT

What 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

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Wednesday Reading Meme for Jan 18 2023

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 17:11:27 GMT

What 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

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December Daily 12-2-22 - Characters Who Need to Talk

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:26:09 GMT

In an effort to do a little more on DW, I'm going to try and post daily during December! This idea is borrowed from resonant's annual December Daily meme, who gave permission to share their prompts - visit their posts if you want to see the evolving list and suggest prompts! -

Top five pairs of characters, cross-fandoms as needed, that need to sit down and have a conversation and share life experiences so that at least one of them can benefit from it. - Destina

5. I think Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean would be a fantastically absurd person to pair with any character from Our Flag Means Death, but especially Izzy Hands. "I'm in love with a pirate king who loves someone else and is changing in ways I can't follow" is a niche problem but a real one!

4. I think Murderbot and the Terminator would have nothing to say to each other except stories about stupid humans are and all the ways they try to get themselves killed, and that would keep them going for literal years.

3. I think both Thomas Barrow from Downton Abbey and Velasin from A Strange and Stubborn Endurance would have useful things to say to each other the trauma of being outed in a world that is wildly unkind about their sexualities, but Thomas would have to be in like, his mid-40s before he could unclench enough and Velasin's end situation is so much kinder than Thomas's ending that they would probably just end up sitting in polite silence and seething.

2. This is a weird one, but I kind of want Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars and Captain William Laurence from the Temeraire series to compare notes about working for corrupt governments and how to deal with that. Thrawn's much more in the spying and long term gamesmanship set, while Laurence is more about making noble but strategically unsound decisions. In either case, Dealing With Emperors could be a fun subclass.

1. Eugenides from the Queen's Thief series and Maya from The Goblin Emperor would have some really interesting viewpoints to share with each other about rule and culture and how to be cleverer than the people who would want to harm you. I would 100% see this as a mentor relationship with Eugenides going, "Well, is anyone going to parent this abandoned child who going to have ultimate power in a few years?" and not waiting for an answer.

Edit: Wow, something went wonky with the editing when I first posted that. I think I fixed it!

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Wednesday Reading Meme - Nov 30 2022

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 22:24:47 GMT

Bit of a milestone: I was trying to record what I've been reading this year and see how many books I actually read without putting much effort into it. I just went in and totted up all the books so far, and we're nearing a nice round number!
(For the purposes of this accounting, fanfic over 50K count as novels.)

What I've Read:
walk by faith/tell no one what you've seen by Killbothtwins
Fandom: Star Wars prequels and novels
My thoughts: The ending on this first part was a bit of a woo-woo magic solution, but it was *very* emotionally satisfying. I really enjoyed the slow building of Obi-Wan's network of people to include almost all of the Jedi who Fall in canon - he's not just fighting the existing dark siders, he's actively seeking ways to support people so they don't fall in the first place.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31805044

Winter's Crown by Astolat
Fandom: Game of Thrones
Author's Summary: “When the Night’s King rides,” the giant said, each word slow as cold honey pouring, “the King in the North must answer. The King in the North…whose name is Stark.”
My thoughts: This fic is divided between Robb's and Jaime's POV pretty equally and that works really well. It feels like an extension of Astolat's published work, Spinning Silver, in its focus on a darker folklore element and the idea of promises made to inhuman powers and what those will cost you to keep or to break. I loved Robb's determination and slow descent into not being a being not entirely human, and the way Jaime kept pulling him back from that.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42924834

What I'm Reading:
A soul that's born in cold and Rain knows sunlight by KillBothTwins
Fandom: Star Wars
Author Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi, time traveler, finds trouble once again when he and Qui-Gon are called to Mandalore— but not THAT Mandalore mission. This one involves still pretending to see the future, babies, a slavery ring, and bothering even more people into becoming his friend. As usual, Obi-Wan drags everyone else along for the ride, including some interesting allies.
My thoughts: This is FUN. I really enjoy the way that the ripples of the first fic are helping save the galaxy, including making Jango Fett just a better dad.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33144037

Carry On by Tamryn Eradani
Fandom: Supernatural
Author Summary: When Sam gets into Stanford, Dean needs a bigger paycheck than Bobby's garage can give him. Luckily, he knows a guy.
My thoughts: This is Supernatural version of Needs Must by thatotherperv, which is a wildly perfect Suits fic. This variation, which was removed from AO3 when the author went pro, is delightful and indulgent in similar ways. I'm savoring.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey - Post-apocalyptic queer women using their position of trust to circumvent the controlling powers of patriarchy and patriotism? A Western that focuses on a baby bookbinder? Adorable. I pulled this out of my metaphorical stack of ebooks that I got for free from Tor because I read this author's discussion of how this book helped her tease out why she kept calling herself "straight" and giving her queer characters tragic endings. https://www.thebooksmugglers.com/2018/06/between-the-coats-a-sensitivity-read-changed-my-life-an-essay-by-sarah-gailey.html

Still Reading - Holdovers from last week:
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell
Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Whale Weekly

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Book Club - I'm technically not actually finishing this in time for book club and I'm okay with that. I think it's probably better to just bask in it -plot is very much secondary. Honestly, I feel like the summaries and discussions I have read of this book undersell just how much of it is about the messiness of human relationships - there's a great deal of hard scifi awesomeness, but also a great deal about the main two characters and their slow romance.

What I'll Read Next:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by Dorothy Johnson - I watched this movie for the Westerns portion of the Great Queer Supernatural Re-Watch, and I was curious. The movie stars John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, and it is so perfectly apt for their types that I wanted to see if the story had been greatly altered to fit. I find Jimmy Stewart excellent in comedies and tragedies, but his style of acting is pre-Stanislovsky and it seems like it would work better for me in a theatrical setting. It felt a bit odd here. John Wayne is a piece of shit who supported the House Un-American Activitoes Committee and was ardently racist. As an actor, he's usually boring and uninspired, tho I will admit his role in Stagecoach was charming.

Library books in the house:
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronovitch
Penric's Demon - LM Bujold
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Med Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera

Newly purchased: Man, this is just an ongoing backlog

Owned and need to read: NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, 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, Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters Ennis Rook Bashe

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Wednesday Reading Meme - Nov 23 2022

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 22:52:02 GMT

What I've Read

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison - (Cemetaries of Amalo #2) This is the second novel focusing on Thara Celehar, who combines Father Brown with noir detective in a fantasy Victorian setting. This book will not make much sense without the previous two books in this universe, the wildly popular Goblin Emperor and the first book on Celehar's life, Witness for the Dead. I really enjoyed this novel - it's got an overarching plot around the murders of a noblewoman and a foundling child, but also combines moments of gentle episodes with other people who come to ask Celehar for help speaking to the dead on more mundane matters (like finding where a recently deceased baker hid his famous scone recipe before he died). The main plot is not quite as tight as the Witness for the Dead, but I am here for the smaller scale that allowed some of the personal relationships that Celehar created and sustained in the last novel to breathe. Addison, aka Sarah Monette, is a great writer and I would generally recommend this. I suspect from the ending, which wraps up some of the emotional threads of the books but not all, is leading to a third book ... and a quick check confirms that. (And also that there are two short stories in this series that I had no idea where there.) I don't suggest reading this book without reading the Goblin Emperor first, which does most of the heavy lifting on the worldbuilding.

Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera - This is from 1987, there was a film in 2002 which was when I heard of this. I really enjoyed this novel, which was not much like what I expected! Ihimaera has a really clear voice and while the novel does some explaining for a non-Maori audience, I had the feeling of being a bit slow on the mark at certain points - which I usually take to be the sign of a book written from a cultural perspective that's different enough from mine that the editors haven't totally Americanized it. Tho this book focuses on a child, Kahu, the great-granddaughter of a Maori tribal leader, Aripana, Kahu is not the main perspective. The narrator is Aripana's adult grandson, Kahu's uncle, who views his family and community with affection, respect, and occasional irony. In places, this is a hard read - Aripana is dismissive and unkind to his great-grandchild because she's not a boy and therefore, he thinks, not worthy of a leadership role. But the book makes a point that his viewpoint is countered from within the community. While there are White characters and culture in this book, there isn't a "Nice White Person" character to distract from the actual narrative. I do think Apipana had a really important drive for cultural preservation, which makes a strong case that Maori identity and worldview has a specific lens to view the world- losing that lens would be devastating to their community and culture, and Aripana's greatest efforts are focused on preserving it and passing it on to the younger generation. (Sidebar: I am nearly certain the narrator, Rawiri, is queer - he seems like he has a romance with a man that takes him to Papua New Guinea for a couple of years, tho nothing is explicit. Ihimaera is gay and I looked up an interview with him that alluded to his childhood having some commonalities with Kahu's. I was delighted to stumble across a queer writer when I wasn't expecting the family connection.) I thought this was a great book, I am glad my expectations about a blandly cute childhood story were challenged. I've ordered more books by Ihimaera from the library now.

I read a bunch of fic, but nothing even approaching the 50K mark so none of it really makes the cut.

What I'm Reading
Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell -For the Great Queer Supernatural ReWatch - on Chapter 6, and we are finally getting firmly into the realm of film Westerns, rather than novels. Chap 5 made me want to re-read Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville - Look. So, I kind of flopped out of Dracula Daily but I did sign up for Whale Weekly, where you read Moby Dick in the traditional order in the form of emails sent to your inbox. I'm here for the wild nonsense Ishmael is selling. It's already really goofy and I have too much history of the Essex to not enjoy the irony of the start.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Book Club - This is slower going now. I thought that a Big Spoiler plot event that I had heard about would take place somewhere in the latter quarter of the book. Instead it took place in the front half, and I'm tied up with trying to figure out where the plot can go from here. When I have something I'm not super enthralled to read, I often like to have a spoiler or two to help me engage with the plot and keep momentum up.

walk by faith/tell no one what you've seen by Killbothtwins - A Star Wars Obi-Wan time travels back to his padawan self story. This is adorable and I'm really enjoying the writing - old Obi-Wan has all the compassion we see in his original series appearances and he's feels like a man who's been thru a war and gone into hiding, and he's like, 13. I don't normally want to deal with too much time travel fixit fic with Star Wars, but this is maybe making me interested in the subgenre. It's part of the much larger series, The Massive Machinery of Hope, and I'm looking forward to getting into it.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31805044

What I'll Read Next

Library books in the house:
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Newly purchased: 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 (aka, Xiaq, a fic that started as a Check, Please! hockey webcomic fanfic starring Kent Parson and OMC)

Owned and need to read: Upright Women Wanted (Which I just randomly read a great essay by this author on being liberated from narratives of queer grief and death), NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, 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, Penric's Demon, True Colors by Karen Traviss

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Wednesday Reading Meme - Nov 16 2022

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 16:24:41 GMT

What I've Read

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir by Jeremy Barlow - A comic book that covers some plot that didn't make it into the end of the Clone Wars cartoon. I'm glad to have read this stuff, I think it would have been nice to see in the Solo movies that got killed by virtue of not being very good, I found the comic books heavy on plot and low on character moments.

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell - A queer sci-fi romance between a very messy and charismatic aristocrat and a deeply intelligent solider with actual morals (something this military system tries to discourage). They fight crime! Aka, stop a military coup, discover the propaganda behind their understanding of a past war, work for the good of some second-class citizens, and also fall in love a bit. I really enjoyed this - it's got a lot of plot and lots of chances to see both main characters reveal their core character traits in high tension situations. Many many chances for the main couple to be wildly into how competent their partner is. (I personally read one of the main couple as potentially autistic, but it's not explicit on the page bc scifi.) I kind of adore how they play with the soulbond/psychic link element, dealing with all the ways it could be awful while allowing the characters to avoid it and form a connection on their own terms. I think this would actually be a great book for someone who does not like pyschic bonds at all in their fiction, weirdly enough! Maxwell does great books for couples who are stuck together through circumstances and come out triumphant on the other side with a deep appreciation for their partner's qualities as a person.

What I'm Reading

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - "Hard" sci-fi in the sense that we're paying a lot of attention to quantum computers and their potential for murder! Book club book that I think is actually interesting - I think now that I find the exploration of what sex and gender might be like in the future to be a bit cis-centric. (A large number of space-based people have longevity treatments that involve sex organ modification such that many, many of the characters can both inseminate someone else and become pregnant -the author does not seem to be interested in what that would mean for gender in space or on Earth?) I suspect there is a romance in here building but it's hard to pin down. Definitely one of those books where some readers will bounce off the main character "making stupid/bad choices."

To Seek and Find- Tamryn Eradani - This used to be Destiel fanfic and I cannot tell you how well it reads as a non-fandom book, because I'm definitely reading it as a fandom book. Kinky and cozy! Might technically be a novella and I will probably opt to purchase the next few books in the series.

What I'll Read Next

Library books in the house:

Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber

The Whale Rider -Witi Ihimaera

Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera

Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi

The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Ebook: The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison

Recently purchased and need to read: NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, 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

Own but reminding myself - Penric's Demon! Get on that! Fansplaining podcast just described it as Venom-the-movie but in the middle ages, good god, ride that like you stole it.

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Wednesday Reading Meme 11-9-2022

Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:41:23 GMT

What I’ve Read
So, I have finished nothing that was traditionally published in the last week, but I have read a non-trival amount of fic, and worked thru a lot of books that I hadn’t actually had a chance to finish yet.
For the finished things, I’m trying to pull back into the format I used for recc’ing works, because if I preserve more info, then it’s easier to find things if they are later taken down

Title: The Legend Of Liob by Killbothtwins
Fandom: Star Wars Clone Wars
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38656698
Length:19K
Summary: The Republic sends a combat photographer to be attached to the 212th until further notice, citing the need for a morale boost. The clones make up a fake clone, citing the absolute fact that it is very funny. Somehow, these two things save the galaxy.
Why I love it: I love Cody’s point of view on this fic, as he tries desperately to reign in the nonsense that several thousand bored soldiers get into while playing a joke on their newly assigned war correspondent. I love the original character’s general willingness to do what she can to help the clones out and use public opinion to help them. The troopers of the 212th are having some fun in the middle of some of the worst possible things that could happen to a person, and it is truly hilarious. This is just a very fun fix it fic!

Title: Triumvirate by celinamarniss
Fandom: Star Wars ex-canonical pre-disney works by Timothy Zahn
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1494842
Length: 77K
Summary: (Mine) Mara Jade and Prince Luke Skywalker of Naboo are given as concubines to Admiral Thrawn. Surprisingly, this works out well.
Why I love it: Welp, I did not expect a threesome where Thrawn the meat in a Luke and Mara sandwich, but, hello, we are here. It’s a bit kinky, a bit dark, a bit sweet, a bit of an AU

Title: Seeking Shelter By sphagnum
Fandom: Original work
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15648981
Length: 7k
Summary: Guns down, gentlemen. Oscar protocol. The betas lowered their rifles instantly, pointing them at the ground in front of Max instead of his chest. Max took a deeper breath in, his tension easing a bit as he moved past the part of the plan where he might just get shot dead before he had a chance to try to bargain. It had always been a risk; it had just seemed like a better death than slow starvation.
Why I love it: I unrepentantly adore writing where characters are operating thru a hard language barrier. In this case, one character has a form of fictional virus-induced aphasia and it’s really well written and interesting to see the world thru his eyes while also getting the dialogue of the people around him.

What I’m Reading:
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - book club, descriptive heavy but interesting. Someone I love who typically has deeply different reading tastes than me truly hated this book, and I took that as the recommendation that it usually is.

Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - Reading for the Great Queer Supernatural Rewatch - we’re thinking about westerns and masculinity! And how that genre of work says things about The American West as a setting and what it means for the kind of masculinity that the characters of Supernatural are dealing with. Related to the third chapter, we also watched Stagecoach (1938) which had some fascinating elements to it in terms of writing and an ensemble cast. (It was the first movie in which I found John Wayne to be charming and a good actor - I normally get deeply grossed out by him!) The racism in Stagecoach felt generic, by which I mean, it’s an inherent part of the genre and cannot be removed, but was also not pointed or with a lot of motivation behind it. Racism as wallpaper. Had a nice long discussion with a friend of how that compared to the John Carter of Mars novels that they’re currently reading, which really wants to pound into your head that the Martians cannot actually feel love and are terrible people who deserve to be conquered. Compared to Stagecoach, where Geronimo is a boogeyman and the Apaches are portrayed with all the inhumane violence of a twister, the John Carter novels are far less palatable to us. But I have a sneaking sense that Stagecoach’s racism has a longer tail because as a viewer of the film, you have to accept The Bargain that a Western movie is making in order to get any pleasure from it.

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir by Jeremy Barlow - a bit spare. I recall that this was a means to publish plots that had been cut short by the end of the Clone Wars cartoon, and it’s a got a little bit of that feeling - I keep thinking that this would be better with performances behind the characters.

Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell - continues great! I'm about halfway thru and the main couple, who started the novel by trying to pull off scam to fake a mental bond that would put one of them permanently in control of the other, are now in a situation where the power dynamic has swapped! The whole thing is running on a basis of trust, admiration for each other's deeply different skill sets, and a solid basis of unacknowledged lust, so it's pretty much catnip.

What I’ll Read Next

Library books in the house
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
The Whale Rider -Witi Ihimaera
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Recently purchased and need to read: NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, California Bones

Newly purchased: Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk - this apparently started life as a Destiel fic and I didn’t know that and I have Polk $11 for the good of the fandom collective even before I got into the book

Also newly purchased - To Seek and to Find by Tamryn Eradani - I found this on a list of books that had started their lives as Supernatural fanfic and I bought it almost as an act of solidarity - I’m hopeful that it’s good, but if it’s not, it’s still only $5.

Own but reminding myself - Penric's Demon! Get on that! Fansplaining podcast just described it as Venom but in the middle ages, good god, ride that like you stole it.

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 00:40:53 GMT

What I've Read

Their Bounty by K A Merikan - M/M/M/M reverse harem romance. A little too goofy to be really dark to me, a densely packed set of fantasies around a young man rescued from melodramatic human trafficking by a set of anti-heroic gay mercenaries. A much more enjoyable execution of concept than last week's hetero reverse harem romance. If you read Hannibal fic, then this is probably fluffy for you, but uh, the warnings are not for nothing.

Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zhan A Star Wars canonical novel that re-writes Thrawn to work with Disneyfied Star Wars era - not quite for me, but I am glad I finished it. I find that I mostly liked the first book of this series because Thrawn the viewpoint on Thrawn was tight enough that his tactical brilliance seemed like a something we could witness in real time thru the eyes of Eli Vanto. This Thrawn is less approachable and I missed watching him and Eli bounce off each other. If I wasn't hoping for more Eli/Thrawn, I might have liked this book more. It did suffer slightly from franchise-itis, that the ending had to set up elements of the Star Wars Rebels cartoon (which I have not started to watch, because no clones). I find a greater affinity for the pre-Disney Star Wars stuff, for the most part, but not without exceptions

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland (book club re-read) The book club adored this book (minus our one Token Straight Man who is also our Token Hard Sci-Fi Defender, who had never read a romance novel and could not accept the genre conventions) and I found the re-read allowed me to slow down and just bask in the writing in the places where it really deserved to be basked in.

What I'm Reading

Supernatural Reading is back! We're doing Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Book club pick! I am literally one page in, and I have to get halfway thru by twos week hence. Doable!

I'm stalled on Hunting Towards Heartstill by Blackkat - I'm gonna let myself skip forward a little bit, I think....

I haven't opened Stay with Me, Go Places by Cacodaemonia at all, too busy, which is foolish, because I am in love with her Waxer and Boil.

What I'll Read Next: I need to pick something from this list and just throw myself at it.

I need to pick of Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir from the library when I get a chance.

Library books in the house

Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber

The Whale Rider -Witi Ihimaera

Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera

Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi

The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

But I will probably instead read one of the new novels I have purchased! NK Jemisin's The World We Make, Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell! November 1 is a good day!

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 18:39:55 GMT

What I've Read
- Omega Required - Dessa Lux (aka, fanfic writer Dira Sudis) - Werewolf Omegaverse m/m arranged marriage romance novel- I bought this in 2018, read 25% of it and then never picked it up again. I finished it this week and I found the main couple really quite charming. Beau wants to be a werewolf doctor to humans, Rory ran away from home at 16 with an older man who promised to take good care of him and has some major trauma around sex. It's careful to show Rory's recovery, tho it's a romance novel so he's improving on a pretty brisk pace. Beau is used taking care of only himself and not asking for help so he makes some fairly stupid (but very in-character!) mistakes around his new job. The resolution is sweet and generally hits the points that think a thoughtful romance ought to. I am probably going to read other things Dira has written - this series has a couple of other books, and this is hitting a self-indulgent spot for me.

Wife to the Marines: A Military Reverse Harem Romance by Krista Wolf (reverse harem het romance, straight woman with three straight men) - Well, this book had some great elements? The sex was fun, the character dynamics were a bit spare (perfectly fine for this genre) but what was there felt engaging, the plot was brisk and both acknowledged the silly elements but made them feel emotionally true to the female lead's internal life. I finished it and at the low price of $1, I feel like I got my money's worth. I have definitely paid more for worse.

But, oh man, I am too queer for this book. I am just too dang queer for this book. I literally picked this up because I was curious about the reverse harem romance sub-genre (aka, straight woman with multiple male partners, yay!) and wow, this is just - like, do gay people exist in this world? Do ace people? Polyamory is briefly mentioned but not actually engaged with at all, so functionally, nah. Because I just cannot imagine a world where queer people exist and these men are making the life choices they are making about committed relationships to other men, and having sex with the same woman in a committed relationship, and then like, just not talking about the fact that you are in a queer poly relationship. It's just, like, the most hetero and monogamous take possible on a very queer, very poly relationship. It's almost as if it's a het romance where the dude just happens to have three bodies? It's so fucking weird to see a book go so far out of its way to frame this as hetero brothers-in-arms who love each other? Like, the intense military friendship that is actually a romance in disguise is literally a gay cliche - this one is ours, straight people.

Also, massive trigger warnings for eating disorders shit (the woman is a trainer and runs a youtube channel where she makes sad tasteless healthfood, constantly breaks food into good or bad categories, calorie counting, talks in detail about the weight loss plans of her clients, none of it needed) and also, uh, military kink? using the American invasion of Afghanistan as a neutral-to-justified backdrop for a personal vendetta? (Dudes, is it gay to avenge the death of your boyfriend's brother under the cover of a legitimate Marine mission while you lie to him and keep him out of the loop, safe at home with your other shared boyfriend and girlfriend?) This was a compellingly written novel full of sympathetic depictions of people who I would not ever want to have a drink with!

What I'm Reading

A Taste of Gold and Iron - Alexandra Rowlan - A re-read for my book club. So sweet, so queer, so fun.

Thrawn: Treason - Timothy Zahn - Getting fun and brisk with this one! 55% in.

Hunting Towards Heartstill - Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars Cartoon au - marriage of convenience, fake marriage, Mace Windu/Cody - Slowing down because we're crash landed on an abandoned Sith planet and I'm watching Mace be annoyed at Anakin and, well, he's very annoying! I'm going to try and buckle down and get some more under my belt so that I can actually just get past this part. I got stuck here last time too.

Stay With Me, Go Places - cac0daemonia- https://archiveofourown.org/works/39540420 - "After months of living a quiet, peaceful life on Ryloth, Waxer and Boil must don their armor again. What begins as a rescue operation in conjunction with a bounty hunter becomes a journey that the Force itself seems to have a hand in." - I am really enjoying this ongoing series, the Reconstruction Corps AU, which posits that a fairly minor change in the Clone Wars plot around the clones control chips allowed the Jedi to stop Darth Sideous and save the galaxy and allow clones like Waxer and Boil to retire to little backwaters and build themselves a community.

What I'll Read Next

2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson - Book club pick, long one, too! Bought it since we're probably splitting it up over six weeks

Library books:
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield
Maul: Lockdown - Joe Schreiber
The Whale Rider -Witi Ihimaera
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera
Riot Baby - Rochi Onyeuchi
The Silence of the Wilting Skin - Tlotlo Tsamaase
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon

Libby:
Truth of the Divine - Lindsay Ellis
Devil House - John Darnelle

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Wednesday Reading Meme - Comes Early & a little notes about Storygraph

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 20:27:18 GMT

I'm traveling this week so I'm going to be out of ambit tomorrow (aka actual Wednesday) so I figured I would write out this week's reading in advance and add to it if I finish anything on the plane.

Also, useful little note for Storygraph users- they now have a way to log things as Not A Book! This was specifically added so that people could use Storygraph to track their fanfic without having to clog the Storygraph databases with non-book items. Since it does not add the fanfic to the larger catalog of books, it also doesn't put fic authors in the awkward position of having to ask people not to link their fanfic to a non-fanfic audience.
Full details here: https://roadmap.thestorygraph.com/features/posts/-not-a-book-status

What I've Read
Homeworld Elegy by Ashcroft_Writes - part 2 of Gunslinger's Paean ( sprawling and wonderful AU from Epsiode 4:07 of The Clone Wars) - Technically an unfinished series but existing works each are complete. I found this to be just... solidly one of the best books I've read. Any genre, but in particular for sci fi. And it's about CAD BANE from the fucking Clone Wars cartoon. After the events of the first fic, which lead to Cad maybe sort of kind of sidling sideways towards considering maybe his current way of life is not working for him exactly as it is, he has to return to the space station he grew up on. This fic takes its original characters and just soaks them with meaning and builds metaphor and culture into everything - it feels incredibly sci fi and incredibly real. Highly recommend both works in the series.

Edit after the fact: I have just discovered by clicking around the internet that Ashcroft also writes under the pen name I.A. Ashcroft and have purchased some books!

Honorable mention for a shorter fic - On the Side by spicedrobot - Maul/Cad Bane, sex work, mind sex - just a great take on an interesting concept!

What I'm Reading
Thrawn: Treason - Timothy Zahn - book three - I skipped book two because it did not have Eli Vanto, and I'm a simple creature.

Edit after the fact: I started Hunting Toward Heartstill by Blackkat on the plane home and I'm definitely in a better place to read it this time (The Clones Wars Cartoon, Mace Windu/Cody marriage of convenience, very long). I think I originally started it before I had really gotten into The Clone Wars Cartoon fandom, and there are things that I remember reading before and being bewildered by - but now I am catching a lot more of the references. I really wish I knew what I had first read by Blackkat - someday maybe I'll go back thru my reading history on AO3 and figure it out. But this is one of her longest and works and I truly think it's shaping up to be one of the best - she really is one of my favorite authors, in or out of fandom, and when she decides to write a love story, by god, she writes a love story.

What I'll Read Next

Darth Maul: Lockdown
Whale Rider
Thrawn -Heir to the Empire
Maybe Spinning Silver
Tiger's Daughter

Things I own:
Might re-read City of Lies in order to get back on the page for the sequel book.
Hunting Towards Heartstill -blackkat
Think of England - KJ charles
True Colors - Karen traviss

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 17:58:05 GMT

What I've Read
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik - Oh, this is how you end a trilogy. This books took the relationships and themes and even the monsters that have followed the main character from the very first book, and hunted them all down to pull the last thematic dregs from their depths. I didn't quite cry when I found out what really happened to Orion, but man, it hurt. It hurt so good. El Higgins will always live in my heart.

Mutually-Assured Destruction by Sineala - Bucky/Tony 616 Marvel comics in the 1960s - Identity porn! 1960's Tony Stark is Iron Man and nobody knows. So when the Winter Soldier comes out of the Soviet Union to ask to join the Avengers on the condition that he doesn't ever tell anyone his name or reveal his face, even to Captain America.... Tony thinks, oh, maybe we could be friends? Maybe I can be a little bit myself with this one? And things snowball from there. This is a great fic by an author that loves the 1960s comics version of the Avengers, and honestly, the tone fits those comics so well. This fic was slipping into a warm bath - angsty just in measure to the comfort. I was following updates from Sineala's Patreon while she was writing it and I was so glad to see if come out!

a simple thing - Chapter 47- by iridan - Star Wars, Mandalorian, Boba Fett/Din Djarin. - Chapter 47 just hit this week, which means we are ONE CHAPTER FROM THE ENDING OF THE FIC,this is not a drill. This fic is 765K words and Chapter 47 alone was 27K words, and I heartily recommend it if you want to watch someone really live into their tags that say " Din 'I Can't Talk Right Now I'm Doing Queer Person With Religious Trauma Shit' Djarin" and "rebuilding a culture is hard." Honestly, great work on the cultural stuff about how there's been tons of contradictory ways of portraying Mandalorians in Star wars, and this fic makes them all feel like people who have been out in the world, trying their best.

Fic Rec based on Scholomance series: If you want a smaller, single person version of the themes in The Scholomance Trilogy, I heartily recommend two other works by Astolat (aka, Naomi Novik in her fic writing persona) -
-Heal Thyself a Draco post-canon character study about what damage using Dark Magic does to a person, and what it takes for Draco to really come out of it the other side. (Technically Harry/Draco, but only towards the end, well after Draco has done the work of fixing himself.)
-Victory Condition: A Tranformers fic in which Megatron and Optimus Prime have to actually talk thru their world views, and Optimus Prime has to face that the Golden Age he remembered was built on the suffering of people he didn't see. (Honestly, I kind of recommended The Scholomance series to someone based on the idea that El Higgins is a Megatron with a bit more support and Orion the human is pretty clearly based on Orion Pax aka Optimus Prime, but with some complicated history.)

Honorable mentions to fic that didn't quite make the novel-length cut: Don’t be afraid. by spqr -Star Wars, Anakin/Obi-Wan, ages reversed. I... I find this pairing normally not for me, and I am aware that this is working on me because I love fic where a traumatized character is confronted with love and care, and well, this did the job.

What I'm Reading

Homeworld Elegy - Ashcroft Writes - Star Wars AU - Obi-Wan/ Cad Bane - 138K words -Once I got some momentum on this fic, I'm just flying thru it. I'm in a section that creates a whole history for Cad Bane and Duros and their world and his childhood romance with a friend, and I'm like, I thought this was just a mean blue man in a big hat, and now you are making my feel emotions??? It's just working for me really well.

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis - I'm just not finishing this very quickly, dunno why. The voice just feels like listening to someone telling a story.

What I'll Read Next:

Library books are on hold for this week because I'm going to be traveling, unless I get finished with them before I go.

Darth Maul: Lockdown

Whale Rider

Thrawn -Heir to the Empire
Maybe Spinning Silver
Tiger's Daughter

Things I own:
Might re-read City of Lies in order to get back on the page for the sequel book.

Hunting Towards Heartstill -blackkat

Think of England - KJ charles

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:46:57 GMT

What I've Read:

May the Blood Run Pure by Wanda Walker (Patreon exclusive - https://www.patreon.com/wanda_walker/posts?filters[tag]=May%20the%20Blood%20Run%20Pure) - Walker writes some fantasy that I really enjoy, and this one was a book that I had started tofollow back when she was publishing it in 2018. I'm glad I finished it and it was a fun read with interesting worldbuilding.

static electricity, dreaming of lightning by blackkat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/21826273 - fanfic - Moon Knight from Marvel comics ends up in the Clone Wars Cartoon - fun characters, love watching Marc and Cody try to figure each other out. Unfinished and will probably always remain so, but very fun.

Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore - Book Club book - A wild ride! "Science fantasy" is a good term for it- while the worldbuilding grounded the beginning of the book in semi-realistic world where aliens live inside of language and can subtly hack the human mind and the perceived world, the latter half of the book is half video game and half fantasy novel. Moore tied two plays that he'd previously written into a new unified whole with this book, and I don't think I've read anything quite like it. While I really enjoyed the plot and unswerving forward momentum of the book, I felt like the internal life of the characters was a bit thin. The dialogue was fantastic, but sometimes it felt like the internal voice of Isobel was exactly the same as external one. I could easily see the story working really well as a movie, where actors' choices bring more depth to each role. I'd recommend it!

What I'm Reading:

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik -I finally got to start this one, and ooooh, I'm really enjoying it. I'll try not to spoil anything since this the series end and it's all relatively new books, but I'm really interested in how El is coping with the ending of the last book, and how she's judging the choices that others have made in the context of the newly expanded world we get to see.

Two Old Women by Velma Wallis - A very quick read, and I'm trying to get it done before I return this overdue book to the library. I'm vaguely considering setting myself a goal for books by Indigenous authors for the year.

Homeworld Elegy - Ashcroft Writes - Star Wars AU - Obi-Wan/ Cad Bane - Stalled out in Chapter 2, where Bane goes to one of the occupied Duros space stations under an alias to work for the Republic intelligence service. I'm actually really excited to read this, I just seem to get distracted from it.

What I'll Read Next
Library books have priority
:Darth Maul: Lockdown
Whale Rider
Thrawn -Heir to the Empire

Things I own: Might re-read City of Lies in order to get back on the page for the sequel book.
Hunting Towards Heartstill -blackkat
Think of England - KJ charles

I didn't really set a firm goal for reading a set number of books this year, but I've had a mental stake that I would like to aim for 100 books. And I'm counting fanfic towards that as long as it feels like it's at least a novel or a chunky novella. Based on my Reading Journal notes, aka, the physical notebook I set up back in January this year, I just hit 80 books

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 23:02:10 GMT

Tiny Life Update - I've been sick all weekend and took three days off work to recover from what I hope is just an annoying cold. (PCR test taken and results coming in soon, tho, so hopefully I can rest assured about that.)

Since I was a bit too sick to focus on books, I binged watched few things - The Untamed (Netflix) and A League of Their Own (Amazon) - it's hard to say which was more gay. I started Untamed back in 2020, of all times, and it's only been with some cultural handholding and fannish support that I finished it recently - but, man, did they NAIL an ending there. A League of Their Own was wonderful as a period piece, and I think they did a fantastic job with the cast and chemistry and the complexity and joy of being a queer woman in America in 1943. I heartily recommend it.

What I've Read

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance - Foz Meadows - I unabashedly loved this book. The marketing talks about the set up - a semi-medieval/semi-magical setting where with a surprise arranged marriage between two men. That's definitely there and I don't want to undersell it - but the thing that this book really excelled at was portraying a character recovering from multiple kinds of trauma who is hurt by those things in a lasting way, but also really intelligent and strong and smart and kind, who is absolutely adored by the man he's assigned to marry. I honestly love the dynamic between the two main characters, the writing gets the POV down great, and I read this in a day. Absolutely captivating for me.

I read some fanfic, too!

an act too often neglected by Ariaste (Untamed fanfic, 60K, Meng Yao/Lan XiChen modern au) This fic was an absolute delight to read just after finishing the Netflix series because these two characters spend literally the last five episodes of the series having an emotional breakdown of their complicated relationship, including attempted murder and tearful confessions of devotion while impaled on a sword. I really truly thought that fandom was overstating their whole deal and I was WRONG. This fic is about two much happier versions of these characters finding out what it's like to truly want someone for the first time, and how to translate that into some deeply amazing smut. Ariaste is a published author and I adored her last book (Alexandra Rowland, A Taste of Gold and Iron, 2022) and if you read that, this is a great next story.

To Earthward by blackkat, gh0st_rose - (Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon au, Fox/Quinlan Vox) This is a horror story about an eldritch forest that mind controls people, and, also, a love story about a policeman who cannot take a vacation and a spy. Also really funny at times.

What I'm Reading
Battles of the Linguist Mages - Scotto More - Still great, slightly slower now that we've met God and he's collaborating with aliens trying to stop the sovereign nation of California from enacting mind control on the world at large. It's kind of impossible to spoil this book in any way that matters.

Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn - the first Thrawn novel, now out of Star Wars canon, but beloved as a historical artifact.

Homeworld Elegy - Ashcroft_Writes - Clone wars cartoon Cad Bane centric AU - great Duros worldbuilding.

What I'll Read Next

Two Old Women - Velma Wallis
California Bones - Have put this one off too long

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 20:34:19 GMT

What I've Read
A fair bit of fanfic but nothing particularly long. I fell down a fun rabbit hole last week of good Darth Maul fic, so much of what I have been reading has been too short to really count as novel-length.

What I'm Reading
Battle of the Linguist Mages - Oh, this is really starting to land for me - found section 1 a bit slow but then there was a Development! And it's working out. Feels feral and queer and fun.

I'm in the middle of a few good Maul centric works - Memories of Water by Withercrown https://archiveofourown.org/works/31061825 - in which Maul and Obi-Wan are old men on Tatooine, stuck in their habits

What I'll Read Next
https://archiveofourown.org/works/30143868
https://archiveofourown.org/works/31061825

I have a bunch of things bookmarked here for later, if you've a fancy to see what I'm up to. - https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitewithfish/bookmarks

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 19:38:05 GMT

What I’ve Read

running with lightning feet by blackkat - https://archiveofourown.org/works/23348836 - Clones Wars Era AU - Feral/ Wolffe, Savage/Sinker, Maul/Fox/Amidala (Rare pair hell trifecta, my dudes.) I’m re-reading this in bits and pieces. While it's not quite complete, there's a real lovely bunch of character work on Dathomir and the world building about the way the team is going to handle the downfall of Palpatine is great. I

Our Bodies Safe to Shore by dharmaavocado - https://archiveofourown.org/works/15933347 - Star Wars, Obi-Wan/Rex, Maori selkies. This has a great little mystery at the core of it that I wasn't expecting - Obi-Wan is a nice normal English teacher in a world where the Fae have invaded most places - but not Aotearoa. So he goes there to hide from whatever happened, and meets a family of selkies who, slowly and gradually, decide to keep him. Everything I have read by this author really hits a particular spot for me - one with a lot of tenderness.

praying for the wicked on the weekend by Just_a_Loth_Cat, coldishcase - https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872874 - Darth Maul/Obi-Wan Kenobi with some identity porn - Darth Maul hires a dude he meets in a bar to play Obi-Wan Kenobi in a sex fantasy for him - not realizing that he'd actually found Kenobi on Tatooine and that "Ben" would be willing to play along. It has some great smut paired with some excellent character work. Series is not complete but I'm pretty pleased with it so far.

Sidebar: I have a very simple rule for the porn I'll read about Darth Maul that's set post-Phantom Menace - he got cut in half and that's going to have some impact on his sex life. No perfect prosthetics, no changing the nature of his injury so that he only lost his legs: either commit to writing a character who has disabilities, or set it before he got cut in half. He has force powers, he has two good hands, he's certainly very compelling (because there is *so* much smut) - there's plenty to work with! This fic does a fair bit of work on that, and I liked reading it.

What I’m Reading

Battle of the Linguist Mages – Scotto Moore - Book Club - a bit spare with a lot of the character depths, with a really interesting mystery going on. I am betting that the Not!Scientologists are, in fact, right about aliens invading the earth.

What I’m Going to Read Next

True Colors - Karen Traviss - there's some fanfic I want to read of the Republic Commando series and I want to actually meet these characters before I delve into it.
Two Old Women - Velma Wallis

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 00:16:55 GMT

What I've Read
I have read no traditionally published books at all, only fanfic.

I re-read Spring in Hell (and everything's blooming)by blackkat, a Clone Wars Era AU in which Jon Antilles and a bunch of other dead-in-canon rogue Jedi foil a plot by Count Dooku, and Jon and clone trooper Rex have trauma bonding in a prison cell. It's angsty and great!

sanguine by glimmerglanger is an AU in which Obi-Wan Kenobi is a vampire - heavily focusing on themes of personhood, the dangers of people misunderstanding you, and Cody pining for the Jedi who routinely saves his life.

Total sidebar: I think it's Glimmerglanger who has made repeated use of a trope that I adore, which is Clone trooper Mandalorian religion and the common parting line between soldiers who feared dying before they can meet again is, "If we don't meet again, I'll wait for you before marching on." And I am slain every time I see this trope used because, well, what more tender promise can we make to those we leave behind?

There All the Honor Lies by Hero_Thief - Space Royalty and arranged marriage AU, clone wars era where Jango Fett is less of a feral hog to his children and decides to take over pacifist Mandalore by marrying one of his clone sons to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Self indulgent and goofy!

What I'm Reading

Still on Unconquerable Sun - the book club are all having trouble with the pacing on this one. I'm going to try switching to an audiobook. This feels like a bit of self indulgence for Kate Elliott

What I'll Read Next
Book club unanimously picked Battle of the Linguist Mages by Scotto Moore.

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 02:47:02 GMT

What I've Read

I have read so, so much Star Wars: Clone Wars era fanfic this week and particularly while on vacation - it's going to be a bit of a slog to write them all here but I'll try!

Those Who Can by K_R_Closson - I read her always-a-girl underpaid teacher Obi-Wan who goes to teach clones troopers on Kamino - it's brilliant.

Thirty-One Sons, Thirteen Moons by sual - Fairy tale version of Cody has to sleep with Jedi witch Obi Wan to break a curse that spits out a new son of Jango Fett every year. Features 31 sons and some dang fun writing.

A Slow Fall Towards Grace by glimmerglanger - A hard read in places, but a great review of Obi-Wan's expanded universe and Clone Wars history, with the addition of some omegaverse tropes. Obi-Wan just... sincerely believes that he is completely unloveable, in the face to Cody's steadfast adoration. Love this.

Transactional States by glimmerglanger (Archive Restricted) - Jango/Obi-Wan. Sex slave Obi-Wan, and the slow redemption of Jango Fett after Galidraan. Just... excellent depiction of flawed, injured people choosing to be better.

Triple Zero (Republic Commando) by Karen Traviss - more in the same series as Hard Contact. There is a little less clarity of purpose here - Traviss introduces a bunch of new characters and the book gets weirdly heterosexual. I also realized that there's a lack of dialogue tags and characters speak in similar voices, so I often had to double back to figure out who was saying which lines. That said, I'm going to continue in this series.

What I'm Reading Now

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group - Plugging along with this until the next week book clubl.

Make Your Bed (Lie in It) by glimmerglanger

What I'm Reading Next

True Colors by Karen Traviss
Never Say You Can't Survive
Hugo short stories and nonfiction works

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 00:01:21 GMT

What I've Read

Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss – I did not expect to like this as much as I did. I felt like I was back in middle school, reading a book a day and getting really sunk into the world. Like a knife to gut, this book is straightforward. Exactly what I wanted to read.

Strangers Like Me by K_R_Closson - This fic just really nailed for me a world in which Obi-Wan Kenobi was rescued by Mandalorians. It's very, very good. I am noticing that Obi-Wan's backstory in canon is an ongoing spiral of tragedies, and I adore that fanfic writers have quite simply not forgotten that. I know I read some of the novels that detail his early life in the Jedi Order and leaving it and coming back, but man, Closson really nailed this one. Bravo!

I have also been reading a lot of stuff that is moderately too short to mention, but mostly in Star Wars.

What I'm Reading

Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group - Like Kate Elliot usually does, I'm off to a slow start meeting all the characters and seeing the world thru their eyes. I wish I could mainline this one, but it's for book group, so slow and steady. I want more Persephone.

Those Who Can by K_R_Closson -I'm currently reading her always-a-girl underpaid teacher Obi-Wan who goes to teach clones troopers on Kamino - it's brilliant.

Triple Zero (Republic Commando) by Karen Traviss - more in the same series as Hard Contact. It's got a lot to recommend it, not least of which is ease of reading. It's even in a shitty, 2006 trade paperback that is falling apart and losing pages - I am in love.

What I'll Read Next

Westerns by Lee Clark Mitchell - for Supernatural theory reading
Never Say You Can't Survive

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:30:45 GMT

What I’ve Read
Strange Adventures by Tom King – Hugo 2022 Nominated – Best Graphic Novel – Eh. This is good, but it’s incredibly Tom King-ish. By which I mean, an American gets involved in a war abroad, lies a lot, and the CIA could probably sue for co-author credit. King’s work is good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not sure if the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy angle is really working for me. It does finish out my Best Graphic Novel category, tho!

Tame a Wild Human by Kari Greg – I read this technically-a-book book on some curiousity – got it from the library, and at free, I think the price is fair. It’s unexamined werewolf porn – there’s better on AO3, but it’s not terrible, I just think that the happy ending is, uh, kind of soured by knowing that your “misunderstood” werewolf bf did literally order some torture and murder to occur in front of you? Which might work for some people, or even me, if the writing could pull it off, but uh, nope.

a simple thing by iridan – Star Wars & Mandalorian to season 2, not in continuity with Book of Boba Fett – This 650K work is technically lacking a chapter or two before it's complete, but I read it over the course of about 5 days, riveted. It’s a truly ambitious work that brings in a significant amount of Expanded Universe characters and backstory to flesh out a potential future for both Din Djarin and the Mandalorians as a culture in diaspora. Like. This is magnificent and I have enjoyed every word. I also really appreciated how the author was very careful about thinking thru what elements of fanon v canon v her own headcanon she wanted to include, and I think she did a really good job at that.

“Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Mar/Apr 2021) Hugo Nominated for Best Short Story - deliciously creepy, makes interesting use of an online medium, definitely recommend reading on a computer rather than a phone. An interesting blend of modern tech as the medium to explore a theme that is probably more in the realm of fantasy, and I enjoyed how carefully the metanarrative built on itself, slowly, comment by comment, until the story's conclusions arrived in your brain as gently as a needle.

What I’m Reading
Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlies Jane Anders – Hugo Nominated Best Related Work – How to get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories – Just started, we’ll see!

Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact by Karen Traviss – Traviss laid the groundwork for a lot of Mandalorian cultural elements, including language, so I’m going to read this as backstory for Mandalorian fic. It’s compelling and I’m appreciating the fact that someone noticed that the Republic grew a slave army to fight their wars, and that’s BAD. Pages, they are turning. I'm not sure whether or not I would find this all so compelling if I didn't have the Star Wars gremlins living rent free in my skull, but they have indeed taken up residence there, so this is pretty great for me.

What I’ll Read Next
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott – Book Group
Short stories and novelettes - Hugo Nominated

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 21:00:59 GMT

What I've Read

Claimed by the Orc Prince by Lionel Hart - Don't judge me, this was a fun little bit of porn, and I wanted to add another to the Books I Read in February List
Spring in Hell and Everything's Blooming by Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars - Ok, this was just an excellent Hurt/Comfort story with Jon Antilles/Rex the Clone Trooper. It's just dark and wonderful.
trade your heart for bones to know by Blackkat - Star Wars Clone Wars unfinished, read to chap18 - Oh, man, this is just catnip.
Pretty by astolat - Game of Thrones - Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth - a great little epilogue about Cersei on a great story.
"Hey, check it out, there's actually fans": (Dis)empowerment and (mis)representation of cult fandom in "Supernatural" by Laura E. Felschow - This was a very interesting look at the dynamics between cult fandom and producers of the shows they love. The focus on Supernatural was a little light and a little early - I would love to see this author revisit the show's last ten years - but a very solid entry into my reading. It's in Transformative Works and Cultures 4.

What I'm Reading

Still reading Running on Lightning Feet by Blackkat from last week - the last few chapters are getting a rewrite and there's an element of risk aversion to the fact that I don't want to finish it before then.
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston - I am about ten pages in, but this book is charming and I need to get the focus set up so I can get on it.

What I'm Going to Read Next

"Renegotiating religious imaginations through transformations of "banal religion" in Supernatural" by Line Nybro Petersen
"Good and Evil in the World of Supernatural" by Avril Hannah-Jones
I don't really know - I'm not super inspired about it just today, but I have no doubt it's going to be something by Blackkat
Maybe I'll just stick my hand into the To Read pile and grab something? Who knows, there's a lot there that I could get into!

Work in Progress Report

I've signed up for Sock Madness, and the qualifying round sock pattern has just come out - so I now have a bunch of things to get into.

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Wednesday Reading Meme

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 14:55:38 GMT

What I've Read

Peter Darling by Austin Chant - This novel did not disappoint me. It really leaned into the idea of Neverland as an escape for Peter Pan, and gave him a lived reality as trans man to really need to find somewhere safe to escape to. It's got excellent character development for him, from a scared little boy to a more thoughtful man, and I love watching a fantastical landscape shape itself as an extension of character development. Also, this author understands that Captain James Hook is very gay and very hot.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin - This is great and just, so fast! A real driving plot with compelling characters and a real love of New York. An excellent book to read in companion with Light From Uncommon Stars. They are both stories that center what it's like to live in a city, as a person of color, and all the joy and life and connection and frustration that entails - loving but clear-eyed.

TV Horror by Stacey Abbott and Lorna Jowett -Meh. This felt like a book report, or a literature review. Valuable to read, just a bit dry.

What I'm Reading

One Last Stop by Casey Mc Quiston - Just getting started on this but I already feel a lot of sympathy for the main character - she feels very displaced and isolated but maybe, carefully, this is the place for her to find a landing spot.

running with lightning feet by blackkat - Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) AU Fic that's focused on an AU where the Nightbrother Feral, the little brother of Darth Maul and Savage Opress, survives longer than in canon, and falls into the hand of oddly compassionate Jedi. Blackkat does amazing writing, and while I watched some of the Clone Wars cartoon in the past few years, I clearly did not connect to it the way that this author did. They are bringing out so many nuance of the injustice and hardship and personal cost of war that this CHILDREN'S CARTOON set up and then could not fully delve into. This focuses on the parallels between the clone soldiers (Wolffe, mostly, but a large cast) and how they parallel the Nightbrothers' experience on Dathomir - property, with lives largely unimportant to the people who control their fate. It's great, it's sprawling, I am slightly afraid of the fact that the last few chapters are not posted. But I have been mainlining Blackkat's works for the past few days due to Anxiety About Real Life and there are so many very long works that are being continuously updated that I'm willing to roll the dice here.

What I'll Read Next

"Hey, check it out, there's actually fans": (Dis)empowerment and (mis)representation of cult fandom in "Supernatural" by Laura E. Felschow
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Something from the To Be Read pile

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