RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[quillpunk]

It is once more time. What are you reading? 👀

Comments

[quillpunk]

Still on Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and Beware of Chicken 3 by Casualfarmer. Have given up on The Martian by Andy Weir, for now. It's interesting, I'm enjoying it, but the mood just isn't there so I'm putting it temporarily aside. Will hopefully get around to it sometime this year, though; I do want to read it!

Also, I'm about halfway through Skeletons in the Closet by Nicky James, an MM mystery novel, and greatly enjoying it so far! :D I also picked up Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett today at the library, and am very excited :DDD

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Five Decembers by James Kestrel. A detective noir set in the 1940's Hawaii/Hong Kong/Tokyo.

[quillpunk]

Sounds interesting, how are you finding it?

[bluedreaming]

I just finished reading The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish Vol. 2 (transmigration imperial fantasy China with a shape-shifting person/fish) and now I’m sad that I have to wait for the next volume (but I’ll enjoy the wait!).

[quillpunk]

I'm so excited for vol 2! I thought vol 1 was really fun and comfy <3

[alightbuthappypen]

Just finished Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan which, meh, then dived immediately into House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski, which so far I'm enjoying a lot more (though I'm not very far in and it's a very long book so perhaps should reserve judgement).

[quillpunk]

Glad you're having a good time! :D

[fabaulti]

My local queer book club has been reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz this month, and since I've finished it fairly quickly, I decided to read the sequel as well. It's YA, so it's not very challenging to read, which is exactly what I need sometimes. In parallel,

I'm reading Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás for the third time, this time with annotations.

[quillpunk]

Sometimes easy reads are good for the brain :D I assume, since you're reading it for the third time, that you like Angels Before Man?

[gloss]

I finished Bujold's Paladin of Souls last night; it's so damn good. An older, sidelined dowager queen, paralyzed by guilt *and* social convention, goes on a pilgrimage that ends up accomplishing huge transformations. Exquisitely plotted and characterized.

Now I am reading Wuehle's Monarch: child beauty queen might be a deep-state sleeper agent?!

[white_aster]

Oooh, Paladin of Souls sounds right up my alley. I know Bujold, must have read something of hers at some point, but never that series. Will need to pick it up!

[phantomtomato]

I’m reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles and being alternately entertained by the quality of the narration and confused by what that narrator finds so attractive in his friend Finny. Finny is not proving himself particularly likable, especially as we get into his conspiracy theories. I’m curious to see how this all draws to an end.

[pauraque]

This was assigned reading for me in tenth grade, and I remember enjoying it, though it also coincided with a period of time where I was not really going to class, so I never found out what the teacher hoped we would get out of it. My only specific recollection is that I was surprised that an assigned book was so clearly gay (this was in the '90s). I would be interested to know if it was actually as gay as I thought it was, or if it was just me being desperately hungry for queer narratives anywhere I could find them.

No reading

[dialecticdreamer]

I'm working on a new laptop. My computer is in the shop, so all links to current fanfic is unavailable. I've been so busy dealing with the chaos of the computer crash that I've not picked up a physical book yet this week.

Re: No reading

[white_aster]

Ugh. Not having a computer is the worst! best of luck getting everything settled.

[white_aster]

I missed reporting last week, so lots this time around.

What have you finished reading?
- Fool's Run by Patricia McKillip - FINALLY. I don't recommend this book. Maybe this is just the scifi version of her usual "rising tension and Mystery Grows, then A Magic Happens and all is resolved".

- The Kindness of Meat by T.J. Land - Fun, quick read about three mostly-prisoner security folks who are
trying to make their way out of several varieties of bad situations on a colony planet, while falling in love.

- R.U.R. by Karel Čapek - The original robots! Dated, but interesting and I like Čapek's undertone commentary about capitalism, greed, and "progress".

- Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher - Solid entry in the Saint of Steel romantic fantasy series - usual odd pacing and a bit of a tacked-on set of challenges at the end, but as usual I forgive the author because it was good stuff and introduced some interesting characters who seem like they might get their own book later.

What are you reading now?
- The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger - what it says on the tin!

- Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes - space horror of the spooky abandoned research outpost variety. I liked Dead Silence by Barnes, but this one the main character is striking me as really juvenile and unprofessional (like...swinging between hands-fisted-at-sides angry at an authority figure's understandable wariness of her to swooning over him and being jealous of coworkers in less than a day), and it's cutting into my enjoyment of the book. But...it's moving quickly, so we'll see what we end up with at the end.

- The Absolute at Large by Karel Čapek - still! Not something I can read in big chunks, but I'm still wanting to see where he goes with this "machine puts out God pollution as a side effect of infinite energy" idea.

[quillpunk]

You've read a lot! :D

It always sucks when it's characters that detract from the enjoyment of a book. Juvenile and unprofessional sounds very annoying :( I hope it doesn't ruin it for you?

[trainerlyra]

Just started Case File Compendium volume 2 yesterday. I really enjoy her other work, in particular The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, but I'm still not quite sure how I'm feeling about this series! I really like one of the main protagonists, He Yu, though, so I'm keeping an open mind.

[givemeyourhonor]

Volume 2 is on my to-read list, but I agree with not knowing how to feel about the series. There are elements I really like and then there are ones that make me scratch my head.

[yhlee]

fiction
- Elva Birch. Stallion's Instinct. Shifter romance: stallion shifter and former con artist / lady he conned. I'm only a couple chapters in, but oh, my heart! ♥ ♥

- Rachel Rosen. Cascade. Nibbling at this cli-fi magic thriller and enjoying the sharp language.

- Julie Dean Smith. Call of Madness. I continue this 1990s medievaloid fantasy that I read and liked in HS, although I remember nothing of the plot beyond the starting premise. It's reasonably well-written. The heroine, Athaya, is a princess who would come off as an irresponsible brat EXCEPT it's clear that she has massive family problems and she's using drug addiction and gambling/carousing to cope (badly) with both the massive family problems and the fact that she's manifesting mage powers in a country where mage powers are usually considered to be the mark of the devil; her father, with whom she radioactively does not get along, has magic given to him by a mage advisor, and is attempting to reform the church on the small matter of automatic death-by-burning for mages. There's a lot of intriguing high-tension setup so I'm curious if the Suck Fairy has visited the rest of the book; among other things, there are three more in the series that were not in my HS library.

nonfiction
- Dirk Lieseman. Phantom Islands: In Search of Mythical Lands. Call this early research/inspiration reading for dark academia nonsense down the line. (In real life, I'm working on YA mecha space opera so I can wrap up this trilogy! But I want to prep for what's next.) Really beautifully written so far.

- Ray Robinson, compiled by. Famous Last Words: Fond Farewells, Deathbed Diatribes, and Exclamations Upon Expiration. The compiler acknowledges some of these are apocryphal or otherwise poorly attested, but I don't pick up something like this for airtight scholarship but fun/inspirational reading. He also includes some notes on each personality. I think so much of my innocence has been destroyed about how, uh, libertine various people were; but there are stories here, in capsule, accurate or not, that are genuinely heartbreaking or that are genuinely moving and hopeful.

comics
- Layla Lawlor. Freebird. ♥ ♥ Slice of life set in Alaska, beautifully drawn, quirky, and full of heart.

(I also did a bunch of reading in games - TTRPGs, solo journaling games, etc. - which I normally do count as reading and sometimes work-related reading at that, but will omit here.)

[quillpunk]

So many interesting books! <3

[pauraque]

I just started Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. I'm not sure if it's going to be for me because I don't read a lot of current YA, and I think that's partly why the tone feels unfamiliar. But the plot is certainly moving along at a good clip, so I'll keep going and see if I can get into it.

[quillpunk]

I saw lots of things about *Iron Widow* when I was still on twitter. How are you finding it?

[olivermoss]

Liar City by Allie Therin just hit my DNF pile hard at 60%. I need to pick my next ebook. I am leaning towards Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay.

For my audiobook, I am still working my way through Tales From The Gas Station.

I'll post more about both in my own journal soon. I am getting up early to take a bus to a bus to do a moonlight train ride on the Oregon Coast. So, I need to charge all the things and have some reading and listening lined up.

[quillpunk]

Ooof, needing to DNF sucks. I hope the next read goes better!

[silversea]

Finished The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei last week, and I enjoyed it. I always love a good heist story, and this was no exception. I'm usually hesitant with stories involving time, but I think the author handled this nicely.

I'm currently reading Against Technoableism by Ashley Shew and The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark.

Against Technoableism is pretty great so far, introducing disability studies through the lenses of technology, pulling from both academic studies and contemporary tales from disabled people. I'm already familiar with many concepts in disability studies the book touch on, but the focus on technology is excellent.

I just started The Dead Cat Tail Assassins yesterday, and haven't really developed an opinion yet. I already read some of Clark's previous works, so I'm looking forward to it.

[quillpunk]

A good heist is always fun! XD

[cornerofmadness]

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn and very much enjoying it. Also some self pubbed thing I got at a con that is less good.

[quillpunk]

Glad you're having a good time with at least one! :D

[petrea_mitchell]

Just finished Bicycles & Broomsticks, which I thought was a cute one-off anthology but no, it's volume 9 in a series of science-fictional and fantastical bike-themed anthologies! It's a mixed bag-- some good, some meh, one story ("Touching Mars") that I wish I'd read before Hugo nomination time.

Now I'm rereading 1177 B.C. to get ready to read the sequel, After 1177 B.C..

[quillpunk]

SFF bike-themed anthology certainly sounds interesting. Glad you found something good in it (Touching Mars is a very good title, too.) Good luck with the B.C.s!

[dirty_diana]

I have Some Desperate Glory out from the library, and I probably should finish it rather than dealing with the hold queue again, but I don't think I'm enjoying it? I get what it's trying to do but this kind of dramatic irony, where the real situation is terrible, is not really a thing I enjoy in general.

The Tainted Cup, not very far in but it's fun so far.

[gloss]

If it's any consolation, I didn't enjoy SDG either. (Except for the little alien.)

[liminaltime]

A Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings. I'm early in the book, and it's well-written so far. It's a memoir written by a woman who was in a fundamentalist religious group and barely escaped with her life. I've been interested in reading religious cult memoirs lately.

I'm also slowly reading a horror book called The Root Witch by Debra Castaneda.

[quillpunk]

Both sound interesting! I hope you're having a good/interesting time with them?

[milo_r]

I've started Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman aka the book against television. Fiction-wise, I'm making progress on my reread of The Vampire Lestat and I gotta say teen!me was right, these books are awesome, idc.

[quillpunk]

Glad you're having a good time! XD

[givemeyourhonor]

Hoping to finish out The Bone Doll's Twin by Lynn Flewelling in the next few days. It's been quite an emotional ride even as the main protagonist goes from tragedy to tragedy. I might start volume 2 of Case File Compendium next since it's sitting on my shelf or Kellen Graves third book in the Rowan Blood series depending on how I'm feeling.

[quillpunk]

Tragedy to tragedy is certainly a description. Good luck with finishing! :)

[snobbish_cat]

I started The Changeling by Victor Lavalle and had to bail. I have a very low tolerance for horror and this was not the book for me.

I finished The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente. I'm rereading the whole Fairyland series, I love these books so much.

Started Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I liked the first two in the series but I'm not sure about this one.

[quillpunk]

Sometimes books just don't click, and that's okay XD

Glad you're reading something you love! And good luck with Children of Memory :D

[elizalavelle]

Just about to finish A Diary in the Age of Water by Nina Munteanu. I really enjoyed this one. It's a dystopian novel set in a future that's looking back at how we lost our right to water and how messing with the climate keeps making things worse for humanity and the planet.

[quillpunk]

Glad you enjoyed it! :D

[dark_phoenix54]

About halfway through Winter's Gifts by Ben Aaronovitch. Who knows how long it will take me to read; I'm so out of the habit, and some of the meds I have to take make me fall asleep if I sit still more than 30 seconds, which makes it hard to read. I used to finish a book a day, so this is quite unnerving.

[quillpunk]

That definitely sounds unnerving :( How are you finding the book?

[greetingsfrommaars]

Part of the way into Amanda Gorman's Call Us What We Carry! There was a distinct point where I realized, oh, this poem is a COVID poem, and then I went to check the publishing date.