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kitewithfish: (our flag means death seagull on head)
What I've Read

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System ( Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 3 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - This seems to have been the end of the real arc of the story, and it landed in a good and very tropey place. 

if you were a mythical thing by Kangofu_CB - MCU and Marvel Comics (Hawkeye, mostly) - 74K - https://archiveofourown.org/works/42952029 - Bucky/Clint - This is pretty cute and fluffy. Werewolf au without omegaverse elements. Clint Barton, not a superhero, gets in trouble with the Ukrainian mob and flees to a small town where everyone is really, really nice and people keep sniffing him? The werewolf element is cute - I vaguely wanted a little more angst because I love angst related to keeping secrets and this fic was just like, Nah, that's not what we're here for. 

Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold - I am legitimately annoyed by how long this took me to read! I bought this book two years ago and just looked at in my stack and didn't read it! But someone on DW read it recently, mentioned that the dynamic between Penric and the demon that inadvertently comes to share his body is really similar to Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote, and welp, here I am, I love this and I bought the next four novellas because my library system doesn't have them all as ebooks. (It was a gift card to Barnes and Noble and I want Lois to have some walkin' around money.) 

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers - Also a book that I had been sitting on. The first book with these characters, A Psalm for the Wild-Build,  came at a deeply needful time and was a great read for the book club. I have a vivid memory from the summer of 2021 of sitting on the back porch in the sun and feeling like the world wasn't doomed. I will love Becky Chambers forever for that book, and this one is a worthy successor. It's calm and introspective and gentle with the foibles of sentient minds. 

What I'm Reading

let the river run by Astolat - A Robb/Jaime/Brienne fic about finding a man worth fighting for. This is literally just pure fealty fic. 

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong) Vol. 4 by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù with Faelicy (Translator) - I think this is a collection of short stories with main and side characters from the main series of this. It's goofy and fun. 

The World We Make by NK Jemisin (Great Cities 2) - I love this unabashedly so far. 

Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film by Lee Clark Mitchell - slightly on hold
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson - Slowly

What I'll Read Next

Gideon the Ninth

Library books in the house:
Tiger's Daughter - K Arsenault Rivera - Will abandon, library called it back
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife - Meg Elison
The Uncle's Story - Witi Ihimaera - information I gathered from elsewhere suggests this is even gayer than I thought 

Owned and need to read: Frey Marske's A Restless Truth, and Susanna Clarke's Pirenesi California Bones, Raven Song by IA Ashcroft, Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert, Even Though I Know the End by CL Polk, True Colors by Karen Traviss, At The Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard, Tamryn Eradani's Enchanting Encounters Books 2 and 3, Like Real People Do by EL Massey, Tom Stoppard, invention of love.
kitewithfish: (Once upon a time; i do love a loophole)
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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