RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[quillpunk]

We're getting toward spring, I think! What are you reading? 👀

Comments

[matsushima]

Still reading The Secret History of Bigfoot: In Search of a North American Monster, by John O'Connor, which, honestly, has been really fun - and also started The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, which is definitely not fun but is very well written. I'm glad I have the fun one to balance it out.

[olivermoss]

I finished Heartsong by TJ Klune and Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

I DNF'd Less by Andrew Sean Greer. I just... I can't. This was a bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner?

I've started Gideon the Ninth and hope to finally get into that, but there is also the Trans Read-a-thon this month and I am hoping to do some of that. I need to re-read Dead Collections for one book club, so that will be one book, and shouldn't take me long.

I tried to read Gideon the Ninth before, but something derailed me. I didn't mean to DNF, something came up and meant to only take a break. I really don't want that to happen again or it will get really hard for me to restart it again. But, I should be able to read it before the read-a-thon starts

I got my TBR list set up on LibraryThing

[aflaminghalo]

I remember reading Less and being wildly underwhelmed for the first third? I think, and then suddenly realising I was massively invested and not being able to work out when it happened.

[olivermoss]

I tried to stick it out for a good chunk of text and might take another wack at it before book club

Less... :|

[vampiricprose]

Oh my fucking god I hated Less. It was so creepy and weird. How far did you get into it before you gave up?

PS I have never heard of LibraryThing before and you just put me on! I think I'll set myself up an account on there soon, thanks for sharing it!

Re: Less... :|

[olivermoss]

I think about 20%. I don't know for sure because my kindle is having a strange syncing problem and thinks I didn't read any of it or have read some books I definitely did. Fun!

I really want to get my bookclub reads read, so I did give it a solid try. It's possible some problems I have with it might be resolved by plot revelations later on, but some things about the book were actively annoying me.

Welcome!

Re: Less... :|

[vampiricprose]

Ahhhh then you haven't got to the truly /weird/ parts yet. Godspeed if you decide to finish it lol

[aflaminghalo]

Finished Sanctuary by Edith Wharton. I don't know why I finished this other than that it was short.
Man Enough To Be A Woman - Jayne County's autobiography. Just gossip from the 70s punk scene and her transition story. It's not great but it kept me hooked, and a bit of polish might have done more harm than good tbh.


Started A Glimpse of the Moon by Wharton. Not far in but it just feels so much better than Sanctuary.

[spiralsheep]

I'm just finishing Wonderland, A Year of Britain's Wildlife Day By Day, by Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss, which has 366 short but well written essays on 366 different species it's possible to see in the UK.

Recently finished The Meteorites by Helen Gordon, which is a book of journalistic style essays about human interactions with meteorites.

I've also recently read a poetry collection so I'll probably switch to fiction next.

And for some reason I'm recalling how much I enjoyed the novel Ways of Dying, by Zakes Mda, which begins in a village that is probably in a fictionalised Lesotho.

[spiralsheep]

And if anyone's looking for inspiration for trans-related books then from my recent reading I can rec:

I Shall Never Fall in Love, by Hari Conner, which is a cute historical romance comic (teen / ya), and

author Isabel Waidner who writes experimental fiction (the latest Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is relatively conventional time loop science fiction and the most readable for most people), and

LOTE, by Shola von Reinhold, which is a philosophical literary novel musing about marginalised people's relationships with mainstream history/archiving and artistic canons.

[petrea_mitchell]

Still working my way through Master Slave Husband Wife. The story has reached 1850, the Crafts are being targeted as a test case for the Fugitive Slave Act, but almost the entire city of Boston seems to be conspiring in their favor...

[volkameria]

I DNF'd The Familiar Stranger because while the first half was great, the second half was the author failing to define various words and spiritual practices, while telling you to follow said practices. Methinks there's background knowledge I'm missing, but not a good look for a book targeting people who don't have that background knowledge in the first place. I also DNF'd Clown in a Cornfield, a YA horror novel with class commentary that might have been interesting if any of the characters at all were likeable. Alas.

I finished Death by Dumpling and the 2nd book in the series, The Dim Sum of All Fears (that title! I love it so.) - it's fast paced and a lot of fun, and the budding romance between Adam and Lana is adorable. Also finished Animal Farm which I had never read before. What a book, easily in my top 5 of the year!

While I wait for the next book in the mystery series to be available from my library, I'll probably start Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, a nonfiction book about the 1914 expedition to the South Pole, or The Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, a Japanese light novel about a cute witch and her adventures.

[spiralsheep]

The Dim Sum of All Fears is a great title. :D

[silversea]

Finished The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip, another excellent book! I'm becoming more of a fan of McKillip now.

I started reading Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett this morning. Very excited for this one.

[white_aster]

Heee, Changeling Sea was wonderful! I find I just have to be very, very selective with McKillip.

[lavendre]

I’m in the final bit of James Baldwin’s Another Country and devastated to be near the end. One of the most delightful character driven stories I think I’ve ever read? Everyone’s a lovable mess.

I’m either going for an E.M. Forster book next or a nonfiction, haven’t decided yet.

[dancesontrains]

Ooh, EM Forster. Have you tried any of his work before?

[lavendre]

I have not! I’ve been on queer lit kick though and have been wanting to read Maurice for some time.

[got_quiet]

I'm reading Schreifer's history of Blizzard, Play Nice.

It's a little dry and covers a lot of material quickly. It sort of makes note of a lot of the problems with the company but does the serious journalist thing where it makes no judgement on any of it, which results in things like moments of extreme sexual harassment being related as a matter of fact. As a broad history it is interesting and has some neat details but it's very much not an analysis.

[greetingsfrommaars]

finished Underland: A Deep Time Journey! really enjoyed it overall. the last chapter was not what I expected, but it made me feel things.

[white_aster]

I remember liking Underland, though I think at the time I was still under the influence of Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds, which blew my socks off in the deep time category. IIRC, Otherlands felt more like a travel book and Otherlands more like a science book, if that makes sense.

[spiralsheep]

I agree Thomas Halliday's Otherlands is a brilliant popular palaeontolgy book.

[greetingsfrommaars]

ooh I have not read Otherlands but will check that out! (you did say "Otherlands" twice in your last sentence, by the way, but the comparison makes sense.)

[white_aster]

Lol, think I was having a bad day when I made that comment, so no surprise there was a mistake like that in it! I mean the one you read felt more travel-ey to me, while Otherlands felt more sciencey. Otherlands was dense stuff, but still I ended up loving how in-depth it went into what the different areas were like at that time.

In looking around, I think that they now have an illustrated version of Otherlands out, too, which you might want to check out. That was one thing about Otherlands that I thought would be really helpful: some pics of the creatures involved.

[pedanther]

Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen. I'm enjoying it a lot more when it gives over the portentous foreshadowing about how world-shaking the protagonist's life is going to be and gets on with actually telling us what she's doing.

[cornerofmadness]

The tomb of zeus, a 1920s era mystery

[screechfox]

I'm still reading Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker. I'm reading it at a fairly slow pace, but that's because I'm enjoying it enough that I want to stretch it out.

I finished Modern Gothic yesterday, a small press anthology of gothic-style stories, some old-fashioned and some set in the modern day. Unusually for an anthology, I enjoyed all of the stories! The first was the weakest, but even that one was solid.

Now I'm trying to decide between Pod by Laline Paull and Penance by Eliza Clark, which are both library gets. I'm leaning towards the former, because I'm looking forward to the latter more, so I want to save it!

[valoise]

Winters in the World sounds interesting

[screechfox]

I'm finding it really interesting! It's one part looking at the calendar itself - e.g. how the year was laid out, religious dates, etc. - and one part poetic/narrative analysis of Anglo-Saxon writing looking at the typical themes and imagery associated with the seasons.

It's very clear about where we do or don't know things - e.g. most things about pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon religion - and seems to be very well-referenced, too.

[valoise]

Just finished Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor and absolutely loved it. I almost always like her books and this one, although different from her previous work, was really satisfying. Without spoiling anything, it is a book about the stories a person tells about themself, the stories they tell others, and the stories others tell about them.

[elizalavelle]

Oh that sounds really good!

[meteordust]

Recently read The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart, after years of hearing them recommended. And they really are that good! About to start The Last Enchantment.

[white_aster]

They are really that good. :D

[elizalavelle]

Right now I'm almost done reading Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions by Nalo Hopkinson and enjoying it greatly.

[lassarina]

I just finished Kalyn Josephson's Our Deadly Designs, second in a duology, and I really liked it; she packs a lot of growth and questions and change into those two books, and as messy as all the characters are, I loved them.

Currently on The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers, which is giving very intense Erin Morgenstern vibes (this is most definitely a compliment.)

[dancesontrains]

Slowly reading 'The Once and Future King', TH White's first four books about King Arthur. Still in the first quarter, 'The Sword in the Stone', which was turned into an animated Disney movie several decades back. Enjoying it apart from the usual racism of the time (narrative comments about 'Red Indians' etc), but that's sadly to be expected. Fascinated by the layers of story throughout - when Kay and Art meet Robin Hood/Robin Wood and his gang of outlaws, there are three different stories told about who Morgan le Fay is, and none of them are ever considered as more true than the others - just competing narratives. That and Merlyn living his (immortal? at least much longer than the usual human lifespan) life backwards makes for a strange combination of goings on.

Also just finished Akira vol 6. Glorious art, I don't quite understand the ending right now.

Some single issues of comic books and manga - keeping up with Fantastic Four (and One World Under Doom), Iron Man, Deadpool and the manga Shiba Inu Rooms about a building full of ghost dogs.

[immournia]

Nothing at the moment. I'm still awaiting my copy of Shadow's Heart by Kresley Cole to arrive. Hopefully within the next few days!

[peaceful_sands]

This week I finished ‘The Empire of Gold’ by SA Chakraborty which I loved. Also finished ‘Orbital’ by Samantha Harvey which was food for thought - a good one for considering life and humanity.

Still plodding through ‘The Guardians’ by John Grisham and ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ - this is more to do with my ability to concentrate than an issue with either. I’ve also started ‘The River of Silver’’ which is a collection of short stories from SA Chakraborty in the Daevabad world.

[white_aster]

:flails: I loved the Daevabad trilogy. I should not have, political fantasy is not my jam, but...<3

[peaceful_sands]

Exceptions should be made for series as good as this one!

[rhi]

I'm reading Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn, the sequel to Killers of a Certain Age. Definitely recommend the initial book and I'm having a blast with this sequel. They are very much what you might think from the titles: a group of older women assassins. Well plotted, a lot of fun.

And then I've got Braided Sweetgrass from the library and no memory of why I put it on hold, but it's interesting. (At least in the opening chapter I read before my fiction got here.)

[white_aster]

I've finished:

- Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell - very enjoyable monster-girlfriend story from the POV of the monster girlfriend.

- Beyond the Dragon's Gate by Yoon Ha Lee - was poking around Hoopla and was happy to find and read this little gem about AI and ships and bodies and rebellion.

Still reading:

- The Fractured Dark by Megan O'Keefe. I enjoyed the first book, and I continue to find it interesting how the bioprinting and neural map system in this series leads to some interesting situations and innovative problems as the characters basically use it to teleport around and create clones of themselves. I still feel like it's based on kind of handwavy science, but I'm intrigued enough to let it go.

- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming. Still fun, and a nice counterpoint to The Fractured Dark. I'm liking this author's take on romances, and the tone she takes. It's a mix of character building and genre conventions that actually makes the characters feel like real people rather than genre cut-outs.

- Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis. Another spoil of my Hoopla trawling. So far I'm enjoying the main character as she got saved by a probably-spec ops military ship and is no doubt about to get involved in their shenanigans. It's kind of like watching a happy weasel noodle let loose on a ship full of Srs. Bizness German Shepards.

[vampiricprose]

I'm reading multiple things:

Attack on Titan manga series (I'm trying to catch up to where I am in the in the TV show and then I'm going to tandem read), the Gulag Archipelago (I listen to the Youtube audiobook when I'm exercising occasionally), and Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare (making my way through, slow and steady). :)

[pauraque]

I am reading The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, which I am enjoying so far. But since it's 500 pages long and stylistically complex, I also started Sula by Toni Morrison which is short and a more straightforward read. It's been a long time since I've read Morrison's fiction, and I think her prose is brilliant, but the content she writes about tends to be quite grim, and a little of that goes a long way for me.