RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[silversea]

Happy April!

What are you reading?

Comments

[silversea]

I finished Royal Assassin, but I was so frustrated by the ending so I took a short break from the series. I read The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard, and Lucia and the Loom Vol 3 by Hisaya Amagishi.

The River Has Roots was very lovely, my favorite out of the three. I loved the focus on the sisters. I thought Navigational Entanglements's romance fairly weak, though I did enjoy the worldbuilding.

I'm back to The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, now halfway through Assassin's Quest.

I have The Good Immigrants by Madeline Y. Hsu and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar from the library, so I'll read them next.

[olivermoss]

I finished Chromatic Fantasy by H A and also the art zine about the making of it. I loved it.

I am currently on Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

[spiralsheep]

Read a couple of romance novels: a 1997 "regency" and a contemporary from 1961 with a character probably intended to be read as gay, which I wasn't expecting. The first was better than that author's usual standard in several ways, while the second was more downbeat than I expected albeit with three happy couples and a family reunion at the end.

Second dnf of 2025 at page 75 of 300.

Now halfway through Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp, 1946, a strangely Dickensian novel unlike the author's other more comedic work. I wasn't in the mood for this but it is good.

ETA: I was mining a vein of golden reads earlier this year but now I keep picking the wrong books: not bad books, just unsuited to my current mood (whatever that might be, lol).

[lavendre]

That 1961 novel sounds really interesting! What's the title/author? :D

[spiralsheep]

The author is Elizabeth Cadell, who wrote about fifty romance genre novels (for the money) and two rather different (and imo better) novels - a funny diary format novel about what happens after marriage titled Mixed Marriage: The Diary of a Portuguese Bride (1963), and a novel about Indian independence titled A Lion in the Way (1982). Her romance novels tend to follow patterns that change over time, with contemporary fashions and also reflecting the author's life experience. One of her persistent patterns is writing what in the UK would be called upper-middle class families as backgrounds, with supporting characters who are working class or not white or both. Some of her supporting characters are interesting and some are stereotypes, usually in the less well-written novels, but they're never hostile stereotypes or looked down on for not being posh/white. She occasionally added in other social issues being addressed in popular fiction of the time, e.g. in this 1961 novel children born outside marriage, with progressive and comparatively socially liberal attitudes and positive outcomes. She's never notably far ahead of her time, as she was writing more for money than pleasure and was a woman of her age and background (upper-middle class white Brit who spent some of her childhood in British India). Other British women authors of similar middle-brow fiction also included LGBT characters (as did literary fiction from the same period) but Cadell generally does not white and working class characters as well or better than most of her peers. I can't say the same for this foray into writing a man coded as homosexual (or effete bisexual or asexual aesthete but mostly homosexual), which probably explains why she didn't include gay characters more often. He's also only a minor supporting character who doesn't get much page space. This novel is generally not one of her better efforts imo.

That said, it was Honey for Tea by Elizabeth Cadell (1961). :-)

[petrea_mitchell]

I finished reading Random Acts of Medicine. More interesting tidbits (including, reassuringly, that doctors' politics don't seem to affect their actual medical decisions) but I don't know, the whole book felt like an online article expanded to book length.

Now rereading Tales from the "White Hart", after realized that I remembered enjoying it but couldn't remember any details.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I am reading a book I got at the library as a 'blind date' [it's wrapped and you just go by a couple-word description]. It's Seafire by Natalie C. Parker. Sort of a girls' Mad Max on the fantasy-world high seas. Nothing I would ever pick out for myself but I am going to give it a go.

[spiralsheep]

Sounds a fun idea. I hope you enjoy the book, or at least find it interesting. :-)

[apachefirecat]

Both sounds fun - the idea and the book! :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

It is an interesting experiment.

[got_quiet]

Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and the Sickness Unto Death.

I didn't know anything about him and am struggling with the work a lot. It's all about faith so far and as an athiest a lot of it I don't follow at all, but I'm trying to finish it to get as clear as possible an understanding of the preposition.

There's a line in here that says: "I believe also that I understand it (Hegel) tolerably well, but when in spite of the trouble I have taken there are certain passages I cannot understand, I am foolhardy enough to think that he himself (Hegel) has not been quite clear."

This is so far been the most relatable of all the sentences in the book.

[volkameria]

Currently reading a handful of things:

John Mark Comer's Live No Lies, which is an interesting examination of truth and lies in society and personally, from a spiritual perspective. I'm still thinking through his points, but it's good to have a book to chew on.
HelenKay Dimon's The Usual Family Mayhem, a contemporary romcom with the most immature main character in existence. Holy crap, I've never shouted at a book character for being so dense before. All the side characters are great, though, and the plot is fun, but the main character knocks it down significantly.
Frank Andre Guridy's The Stadium, a nonfiction book about the cultural and political significance of American sports stadiums, especially through a lens of class, race, and gender. I know nothing about sports so this is an enlightening read!
Also got back into a manga, Yuru Camp, which is cute girls going camping in rural Japan and having fun doing it. It's lighthearted and very sweet.

[cornerofmadness]

Floating Hotel where somehow SF feels like contemporary fic because we're just ambling along looking at the day to day life of every character with the barest hint of a plot

[vriddy]

Started on Ursula LeGuin's Birthday of the World short story collection and getting my mind blown with each of them so far, haha. Wow.

[spiralsheep]

That's one of my two favourite LeGuin collections (the other is A Fisherman of the Inland Sea). I honestly think her shorter stories, especially when she wrote several in the same setting, are generally better than her full length novels (her essays are good too).

[vriddy]

Oooh cool, I shall add that other one to my tbr pile too :D Thanks for the rec!

[screechfox]

Non-fiction, I read Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg, and I'm currently working on Before We Were Trans by Kit Heyam. Hoping to get that done today so I can pick up some non-trans non-fiction, nice as it's been to really dwell in a topic for a while!

Fiction, I finally read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Now I'm about halfway through Stag Dance by Torrey Peters - I've just started the titular story.

I kind of want to read something lighter that I don't have to think about as much after this, but my reservation on The Monster by Seth Dickinson came through at the library, so I might end up In The Pits instead!

[skye_writer]

Still in the midst of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. I read a big chunk of it the other day, so I'm a little over 1/3 of the way through it. I'm hoping I can read another chunk today; we'll see what happens!!

[valoise]

Reading this week was all Doctor Who related. First, I think this was recommended here several weeks ago, Dining with the Doctor: The Unauthorized Whovian Cookbook by Chris-Rachael Oseland was a lot of fun.

Next, Doctor Who and the The Horror of Fang Rock is one of those novelizations that Terrance Dicks fleshed out really well, with expanded scenes really improve on the broadcast story.

[lavendre]

I just finished up The Invention of Heterosexuality by Jonathan Ned Katz which was both cathartic and rewarding. Reading about all these sexologists trying to determine a normal/abnormal was depressing but important history.

I also just finished a really fun 1979 pulp novel called Wingmen by Ensan Case (it's available on Open Library). Really surprising WWII fighter pilot story with a slowburn romance that was actually quite tasteful.

Currently reading Kay Boyle's Gentlemen, I Address You Privately which is melting my brain as some of the most fabulous prose and character writing ever (and I'm freshly coming off the back of some James Baldwin novels too). Feeling like I keep hitting gold with these books haha.

[apachefirecat]

I'm working on finishing Women of Easter. I'm actually on the very last chapter, but it looks like it's going to take more Scripture reading to go along with it than any of the other chapters so probably going to save this one for a day off when I have more time and clarity at that same time. :)

Also picked up a book that I'd thought was by the Bunnicula author but it turned out to be by a different, not-as-cute, far-sadder author (wrote A Dog Called Kitty and pretty much finished that one in one sitting. Got about 20-30 pages left. It's a kid's book, but when I thought it was by Bunnicula's author, I was thinking it was going to be a quick, easy smile. LOL

And then my husband and I are trying to read a book together again, one of his favorites, but that's easier said than done...