What I’ve Read:
The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation – Vol 4 (Mo Dao Zu Shi) In case anyone was tracking, this took me about a month to read and the main romantic couple have finally fucked! It was a disaster! These idiots have one book left to get their shit together

What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) - T. Kingfisher – This is a sequel to What Moves the Dead, which I think is a bit better by virtue having a more interesting blend of science fiction set in a historical period. However, if you want to learn more about our main character, Alex Eastern, and kan fictional country, it’s a solid horror story with characters I want to hold up to the sun like stained glass.

We Were Liars – E. Lockhart – Good lord, I pulled this book out of the TBR cart knowing I’d had it a while and the receipt stuck in its pages was from the Year of Our Lord Josh the Carpenter 2015. SO. I read it in basically two days, and it’s really quite good - the writing is poetic and I'm slightly reminded of One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies (2004), a novel in verse by Sonya Sones. Character voices are solid and feel distinct, there's a weight and momentum behind the actions our main character takes, and it's all so very human. Our heroine is a sick 18 year old girl who is trying to figure out what happened during her family’s annual vacation when she was 16. It’s Gothic! It’s New England! It’s fucked up! Including houses full of secrets, a family who has something to hide, and a heroine going somewhere unfamiliar to unearth what she should, by rights, already know.

The cover flap instructs me to lie about the ending if you ask, and I actually think that’s worth the effort. 

What I’m Reading:
Witchmark – CL Polk – Fun with Necromancy Book club – I am re-reading this and now that I know CL Polk used to write as CeeAintHereForThat, I am certain I see the signs of SPN fanfic

Abandoned - A Court of Mist and Fury – Audiobook read by Jennifer Ikeda – book 2 of ACOTAR series – 60% This book has lost all charm. I didn’t think a heist narrative could be boring, but I am just TIRED of how uninterested Maas seems to be in making the writing engaging or fun or surprising. It’s all just STATEMENTS. I have bailed bc I was doing the audiobook and the library summoned it back. I do not anticipate picking it back up again. Why are the booktok girlies so into this? I like romance novels but this doesn’t even have the charm of being self indulgent.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York– Robert Caro – about 23% - Soooon

The 99% Invisible podcast has special episodes on the chapters along this schedule, which I am trying to keep up with:
Reading schedule under the cut


Fellowship of the Ring – JRR Tolkien – 17%

What I’ll Read Next:
Silver Nitrate
Gunslingers Paean #3
Murderbot #3