"Mysteries of Thorn Manor", the sort of sequel to Sorcery of Thorns (which I assumed would be standalone novel). It's delightful in an easy read way, although I forgot a ton of the details from the prequel, which also was a delightful YA book. Should finish it tonight.
Other than that I read a bunch of Dead Boy Detectives fanfic.
I am nearly done with Salem's Lot, which I am rereading before the new adaptation comes out. Then, I can get get back to my other books. I have, technically, read Salem's Lot before, but it was for a college course on fantasy and horror lit I took over the summer back when I was in school. We had to read a book every 3 days to keep up which seemed fine, but the horror books were mostly Stephen King novels and one of the 'books' was The Lord of the Rings. Not Fellowship of the Ring, the whole thing. The professor assumed anyone into fantasy and horror would already have read all of Tolkien and King and other authors and we'd just be re-reading for the course. I hadn't, so, yeah, I've technically read it before but I had to power through it and only remember a few things.
This is my first time having something in both text and audio format so I can switch between them and it's not working great. Actually, the main problem is Audible syncing right between my phone and my computer.
I continue to be enjoying the 7th Time Loops series quite a lot. Almost done with the third volume of the light novels. However finishing it will be a few days, as yesterday 86 Alter arrived, which I've been excited for! The 86 light novels are among some of my favorite books period, so it'll be really nice to read about them getting to relax for once. Of course, this week was also spent reading quite a bit of old fanfic, but that's a constant haha.
Other than that, I'm finally almost finished with my audiobook, The Devil At His Elbow. A lot of the actual legal side of things I had already done reading on while it was ongoing, but there are some details I'd forgotten, or just things the book is going into more depth on, that have been fascinating if nothing else.
I picked up Margo's Got Money Troubles because I wanted something a little breezier than what I had just finished (the phenomenal LOTE). It was breezy all right, and also awful, and I'm pretty sure I should write a review because it's still pissing me off whenever I think about it.
Last night I started the first in CS Lewis's Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, and I'm enjoying it so far. His prose style is just lovely.
What I finished: Dual Memory by Sue Burke. A book about a human refugee and a newly awakened AI teaming up to defend an island from raiders in a near-future Earth. A book where I was very much left wondering why I didn't like it more and realized it was mostly because of style. At its heart it's a hopeful book, but it was just...tense and oddly sterile. The book does a good job of showing how the main characters are vulnerable and constrained and at the mercy of uncaring systems that could turn on them. So as the plot unfolds, you're unsure if that is ever going to come to pass or not, and the way the human POV character is written is oddly detached, oddly arms-length. The human POV came across at first as being traumatized, and perhaps that's what it's meant to be all the way through (he certainly has reason to be traumatized), but it also could just be the way this author writes characters. The author seems to be an ideas person rather than a character person, from reviews of her other books. But it does make it harder to get a grip on the character and feel embedded in the world, when everything feels so detached and uncaring/uncared-for, and the main character's so passive. Still...the plot was good, and I wanted to see how it ended.
What I am currently reading: The Absolute at Large by Karel ÄŒapek - still...going.... And I called it! The machine that makes god has now led to world war, on schedule. I am going to finish this by next Wednesday. I will.
How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology by Philip Ball. ...I am enjoying this a lot less than I expected. Oddly this book seems to define "new" as "anything that's happened since the mid-1970s". So instead of feeling cutting edge, I'm almost 20% of the way in, and the author is dredging up and refereeing old academic pissing contests. I am bored. I started skipping pages. I would like to learn some actual correct cool biology now? Maybe it will get better now that we're out of the basic info about genes?
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. I'd passed this book over before, because the synopsis just didn't grip me and I hadn't gotten into Kingfisher yet and didn't know how I'd like the writing. Now that I'm more familiar with her, I'm more willing to give the murder princess book a go.
its cozy adjacent, about a dude who wanted to be a villain, went to villain school and all, but ends up with the job of caretaker/landlord in a building for tenants with magical/supernatural abilities. And one day The Powers That Be send a human to stay there, in order for him to determine if she is just human or has abilities, without her finding out everyone in the building is magical. Its been kinda fun, low-medium stakes.
Currently reading Though I Am an Inept Villainess Volume 1 by Satsuki Nakamura and Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang.
I like Inept Villainess so far, but it's not really grabbing me yet. I heard some good stuff about this, so I might continue for another volume or two and see how I feel about it before dropping it.
I'm still early on in Vagabonds, so no opinion yet.
I finished Drumsticks by Charlotte Carter which is #3 in the Nanette Haynes mystery series. And audiobook An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris, a fictionalization of the Dreyfus Affair.
And I am currently listening to an audiobook version of It by Stephen King for the first time. I've never read it. And I'm reading Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs which is #3 in the Inspector Littlejohn series. And I'm on Chapter 5 of the BTS book: Beyond the Story.
Just finished Monty Python Speaks. The Complete Oral History by David Morgan which was really interesting, based on interviews he did with them from 1986 through 2018.
I went to the library to pick up the latest Richard Osman, but it was already checked out. So I was browsing through the new books and found Unbecoming a Lady: The Forgotten Sluts and Shrews Who Shaped America by Therese Oneill. It's fantastic, about women who shrugged off the conventions of society and became successful in their own way.
Also picked up Miss Felicity Beedle's The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett and Bernard and Isobel Pearson. I was a latecomer to Pratchett and Discworld, the first book I read was Snuff, which was one of his last. In that book Sam Vines' son is fascinated with a book called The World of Poo. This is that book, the adventures of a young boy visiting his grandmother in Ankh-Morpork and discovering the wonders of poo of all sorts.
I'm finally getting into the (most recent) Krakoa storyline with the X-Men! One of the things we did for our anniversary was to stop by a local flea market, and we were all (hubby, me, and the tag-along mother/molestor) were all THRILLED to find that they now have a comic book table! They insisted, bless them, on me getting all the comics I wanted, and amongst them were a few issues of a series I didn't recognize, Immortal X-Men. I was BEYOND THRILLED to also pick up what turned out to be the prelude to the Tony/Emma wedding, as well as to discover that the Immortal X-Men took place towards the end of Krakoa! I can't WAIT to read more!
It even has me allowing my new Spike book, my other big present from the hubby (along with two current comics subscriptions) still waiting to the side.
Add to this the fact that I'm actually following multiple Webtoons now, and the comic nerd in me feels well fed indeed! <3 =)
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Other than that I read a bunch of Dead Boy Detectives fanfic.
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This is my first time having something in both text and audio format so I can switch between them and it's not working great. Actually, the main problem is Audible syncing right between my phone and my computer.
no subject
Other than that, I'm finally almost finished with my audiobook, The Devil At His Elbow. A lot of the actual legal side of things I had already done reading on while it was ongoing, but there are some details I'd forgotten, or just things the book is going into more depth on, that have been fascinating if nothing else.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
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Last night I started the first in CS Lewis's Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, and I'm enjoying it so far. His prose style is just lovely.
no subject
no subject
Dual Memory by Sue Burke. A book about a human refugee and a newly awakened AI teaming up to defend an island from raiders in a near-future Earth. A book where I was very much left wondering why I didn't like it more and realized it was mostly because of style. At its heart it's a hopeful book, but it was just...tense and oddly sterile. The book does a good job of showing how the main characters are vulnerable and constrained and at the mercy of uncaring systems that could turn on them. So as the plot unfolds, you're unsure if that is ever going to come to pass or not, and the way the human POV character is written is oddly detached, oddly arms-length. The human POV came across at first as being traumatized, and perhaps that's what it's meant to be all the way through (he certainly has reason to be traumatized), but it also could just be the way this author writes characters. The author seems to be an ideas person rather than a character person, from reviews of her other books. But it does make it harder to get a grip on the character and feel embedded in the world, when everything feels so detached and uncaring/uncared-for, and the main character's so passive. Still...the plot was good, and I wanted to see how it ended.
What I am currently reading:
The Absolute at Large by Karel ÄŒapek - still...going.... And I called it! The machine that makes god has now led to world war, on schedule. I am going to finish this by next Wednesday. I will.
How Life Works: A User's Guide to the New Biology by Philip Ball. ...I am enjoying this a lot less than I expected. Oddly this book seems to define "new" as "anything that's happened since the mid-1970s". So instead of feeling cutting edge, I'm almost 20% of the way in, and the author is dredging up and refereeing old academic pissing contests. I am bored. I started skipping pages. I would like to learn some actual correct cool biology now? Maybe it will get better now that we're out of the basic info about genes?
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. I'd passed this book over before, because the synopsis just didn't grip me and I hadn't gotten into Kingfisher yet and didn't know how I'd like the writing. Now that I'm more familiar with her, I'm more willing to give the murder princess book a go.
no subject
no subject
no subject
its cozy adjacent, about a dude who wanted to be a villain, went to villain school and all, but ends up with the job of caretaker/landlord in a building for tenants with magical/supernatural abilities. And one day The Powers That Be send a human to stay there, in order for him to determine if she is just human or has abilities, without her finding out everyone in the building is magical. Its been kinda fun, low-medium stakes.
no subject
I like Inept Villainess so far, but it's not really grabbing me yet. I heard some good stuff about this, so I might continue for another volume or two and see how I feel about it before dropping it.
I'm still early on in Vagabonds, so no opinion yet.
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And I am currently listening to an audiobook version of It by Stephen King for the first time. I've never read it. And I'm reading Death of a Busybody by George Bellairs which is #3 in the Inspector Littlejohn series. And I'm on Chapter 5 of the BTS book: Beyond the Story.
no subject
I went to the library to pick up the latest Richard Osman, but it was already checked out. So I was browsing through the new books and found Unbecoming a Lady: The Forgotten Sluts and Shrews Who Shaped America by Therese Oneill. It's fantastic, about women who shrugged off the conventions of society and became successful in their own way.
Also picked up Miss Felicity Beedle's The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett and Bernard and Isobel Pearson. I was a latecomer to Pratchett and Discworld, the first book I read was Snuff, which was one of his last. In that book Sam Vines' son is fascinated with a book called The World of Poo. This is that book, the adventures of a young boy visiting his grandmother in Ankh-Morpork and discovering the wonders of poo of all sorts.
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Currently reading When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill. I'm not liking it as much as I thought I would.
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It even has me allowing my new Spike book, my other big present from the hubby (along with two current comics subscriptions) still waiting to the side.
Add to this the fact that I'm actually following multiple Webtoons now, and the comic nerd in me feels well fed indeed! <3 =)