booknook | RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

I'd make a Wednesday Adams graphic or gif it I wasn't in a rush!

What have a read? Uh, a lot since last I commented. This isn't all from just this week.

I just finished A Gentleman's Gentleman by TJ Alexander. I read all 4 volumes of Boy Run The Riot. I read Brothersong and finished out the Green Creek series by going through all the extra short stories. I managed to get through Gideon the 9th this time!

The Green Creek series is one of my favorite series, but I don't click with some other stuff by TJ Klune so that's surprising. Gentleman's Gentleman and Boys Run the Riot were for the Trans Right Readathon

More thoughts on those books on my posts tagged books, tho I haven't made a post on Gentleman's Gentleman yet. A quick react is... I like it. I am glad it exists. I clicked with it less and less as the book went on. I feel like it could make an amazing movie, but as a book the tropes / pacing / etc weren't really working for me. But hey a trans regency romance involving a valet exists and I'm glad it exists.

This week I finished:

'By Any Other Name' by Jodi Picoult - took me a while to get into it but then an enjoyable read
'In an Absent Dream' and 'Come Tumbling Down' by Seanan McGuire - part of her Wayward Children series which I'm enjoying - they are quick reads.
'One Last Secret' by Adele Parks - didn't enjoy this 'thriller' - found it dark but also unconvincing.
and the final finish for this week was 'Legend of the White Snake' by Sher Lee which was an interesting take on a Chinese myth.

My new and/or ongoing reads are 'The Guardians' by John Grisham, 'Earthsea - the First Four Books' by Ursula Le Guin (just Tehanu left to read), and 'The Perfect Child' by Lucinda Berry.

Finished since last Wednesday:

Dispersals, by Jessica J Lee, 2024, non-fiction.

Walking the Invisible, Following in the Brontes Footsteps, by Michael Stewart, 2021, non-fiction: "I wasn’t born with a Brontë obsession. As far as I know, it is not a congenital condition. But these past few years I’ve been struck with Brontë Fever. I’m not the only one. Over the course of my fanaticism, I’ve met others. They appear quite normal, some of them."

All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders, 2016, fantasy fiction. For the trans-readathon.

Next...? :-)

What did you think of the Charlie Jane Anders book? I enjoyed one of her short stories in a collection I have, and I've been considering getting that from the library.

It's very well written and does exactly what the author appears to be aiming for, and I'm not at all surprised it achieved high sales figures (one of Anders' stated aims iirc). It's also not aimed at my demographic or reading preferences, but many of my friends read it back around 2016 and enthused about it and I can see why.

It's structured like a traditional "coming-of-age" fairytale: only the two protagonists are fully real characters (this isn't an insult to the writing - it's clearly part of the style), the story proceeds through a series of vignettes, and despite the content having extremely disturbing moments there's a "happy" ending (which Anders earned by constructing the novel so carefully).

The themes are personal "coming-of-age" in the traditional sense of becoming an adult who is capable of being responsible for oneself and others, and love in a variety of forms (romantic, familial, twisted, community/society, nature/habitat - loving relationships generally and how finding balance within those is The Quest). There isn't overt transness (2016 and aiming for a bestseller, obv) but there is a lot of nerd-as-outcast and personal transformation as expected from a contemporary coming-of-age fantasy novel.

The vignettes, and this isn't spoilery because it's irrelevant to the themes of the story, are each based on Anders' internal List of Genre Tropes Millennials Like (no, rly) from magical boarding school to giant mecha, lol (again - she was intentionally trying to write a popular novel and she made it work).

All this stood out from the pack a lot more in 2016. Worth reading if these themes are your bag - it's about 430 pages but it's a fast read. Might mess with readers' emotional comfort zone but it has a relatively upbeat ending.

Warnings: substance abuse, disordered eating (and sleeping) almost valorised in one incidence, and because it's set in similar world to ours but in the near future also background environmental collapse but with a more upbeat ending than might be expected from the content.

Since my trans-related reading spree a couple of months ago this was the last transy novel on my TBR so I'm glad I read it and I very much admire Anders' skill as an author, even if her faves aren't mine. :-)

Ooh, thank you for the detailed response. I didn't know that context about what she was aiming for, that's also good to know. I don't normally go for coming of age stories but I'm still intrigued, so I'll have to get it out when I'm in the mood.

Since we last met, I've re-read The Martian (I was planning to space it out a bit, but I ended up zooming through it), and began and then abandoned Gorky Park (big cast of quirky characters, none of whom I liked or cared about their problems, with the possible exception of the movie studio costume assistant who appeared in one scene, and I suspect that if I read on in the hope of more of her story I'd just be disappointed).

Currently, I've just started Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, which I got in some kind of book deal ages ago without much idea of what it's about.

I'm making my way through The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb for the first time, currently on Royal Assassin. I really liked the first book, but Fitz and Molly's relationship in the second book is dragging down the book for me, and I'm just trying to push through but it's a slog. Fingers crossed it'll get better.

Went through Warhorn, the Crossroads Adventures gamebook set in the world of Daughter of the Bright Moon. It shares the faults of most of the other Crossroads books I've checked out.

Now reading Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health. One of the authors hosts a Freakonomics-related podcast, which will give you some idea of the tone and approach. I'm finding the little details of the life of modern hospital staff that pop into view here and there to be more interesting than the actual answers to the questions the authors have been examining in their research.

Edited 2025-03-27 01:17 (UTC)

Blessings in Disguise, memoir by Alec Guinness. I'm always interested in British theatre and tv.

I've FINALLY managed to get some reading time in again!! I've made it about half-way through my first book for Easter this year (I've got two I want to read), Women of Eater. I've also really been getting a lot of reading the sections of Scripture the book mentions.

Finished (all for the Trans Rights Readathon):
A Natural History of Transition by Callum Angus, a magical realism-tinged short story collection that I enjoyed, although I think I should have spaced out the stories more.

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg, which didn't quite work for me.

Sistersong by Lucy Holland, which ditto.

I'm currently reading The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye, which I should have gotten around to long since. She's preaching to the choir, of course, but I genuinely think it's such a clear and cogently argued book. Hoping to get this finished off today so I can break into another of my planned non-fiction books.

Taking a pause on fiction until Friday because I have Stag Dance by Torrey Peters coming then, which should carry me through the rest of the readathon. Start with a short story collection, end with a short story collection!

As part of my research on food in WWI I read The Eat-Less-Meat Cookbook by Dorothy Peel. Not a vegetarian book, really, with a focus on British wartime food restrictions there is a strong emphasis on conserving what might otherwise be wasted, such as leftover meat scraps or fat. But this is one of the better written cookbooks I've read for this project. Her writing is clear and really well thought out. I've flagged a number of recipes to try out in the next few weeks

When it was first published a few years ago I picked up a copy of Memory's Legion by James S. A. Cory. At the time I had burned my way through The Expanse, all 9 novels and the TV series, but stalled out when it came to reading this collection of short stories and novellas. I had forgotten how much I enjoy their writing, the depth they bring to characters makes for really addictive reading.

Rereading Xiran Jay Zhao's Iron Widow. I checked out the sequel (Heavenly Tyrant) from the library and tried to start it, but I couldn't remember much about the first one, so I'm doing a reread to refresh my memory. :)

I managed to finish Installment Immortality by spending most of my Tuesday reading.

I've now started reading a sci-fi romance called Space for Growth, which is decent so far.

My next physical book is planned to be You Feel it Just Below the Ribs, but I'm not sure when I'll get started on it.

Slowly going through Jennifer L. Armentrout's From Blood And Ash, romance-fantasy. I'm pretty sure I've picked up all the clues she's putting out and WHEW if I am reading the pacing right the main character is about to have a Really Fucking Bad Day.

also started Godkiller for my book club, which I am loving.

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

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