RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[spiralsheep]

Wednesday's child is full of curiosity....

What are you reading?

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I finished Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp, which is one of her less humorous novels so not a personal favourite but it's good at what it's trying to do, which is quirky family saga. I realised it was also an accidental re-read - my second in a row, lol.

I read a popular novel billed as "feel-good" that I was enjoying until the author decided to drop some unsubtle racism bombs.

Now just over halfway through the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing winner Late Light, The Secret Wonders of a Disappearing World, by Michael Malay, which is mostly four extended essays about four species of animal found in the UK (eel, moth, mussel, cricket) with more general top and tail chapters at each end. The writing is meditative and expansive but also melancholy and inevitably downbeat as it's tracking declining populations in reducing habitats. It deserved the award wins for both the prose and the content imo. I've read all the other shortlisted 2024 Wainwright books and the only two that came close are the travel memoir Local, A Search for Nearby Nature and Wildness, by Alastair Humphreys, and popular social history Rural, The Lives of the Working Class Countryside, by Rebecca Smith. I usually find at least one or two books I want to read through the Wainwright Prize shortlists (released August with three different categories) and I often read some of the books that don't especially appeal to me as well because they're all good one way or another.

Am considering trying to persuade a few people into a one-chapter-a-month readalong of some short, obscure, and not necessarily good anthology that's out of copyright everywhere and easily available such as Aurora Australis. If I'm not currently enjoying the reading then at least I'd appreciate the company and be amused by any ensuing fanworks. :-)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Who are we shipping Shackleton with?! :) I am, admittedly, partial to doomed polar explorations and sea voyages, especially if there is scurvy or cannibalism.

[spiralsheep]

Sadly for you, Aurora Australis is from one of the earlier, sucessful, scientific expeditions to the Antarctic. :D

Surely the ships are Endurance/ghost of Erebus, and Shackleton/his men? ;-) But I encourage all possible fanworks in all variations, in this case especially the forms and genres of the original which include art, poetry, weird dream fiction, and travel writing (serious and not so serious), amongst other possibilities (such as expanding the timeline to cover more history). :-)

[raspberrysweettea]

I finished Artificial Condition by Martha Wells this morning, and now I'm on Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. I'm also listening to The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor on audiobook.

[petrea_mitchell]

Finished Tales From the "White Hart". It was amusing.

And then I just finished reading The Warlock in Spite of Himself in preparation for diving into another Crossroads Adventure book. It's a much better book than I'd have expected if I'd known ahead of time it was someone's first novel from 1969. OTOH, also has some of the expected faults of a popular sf novel of the time. On the third hand, contains way more political science than any reader now or then would have expected given the premise; all the stuff about popular uprisings leading to totalitarian dictatorships feels a bit awkwardly relevant, even if the author was at the time channeling paramoia about Communism.

[starfleetbrat]

I started Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito which everyone says is really funny and gory, but so far I see no signs of it being either (granted, I am only a few chapters in).

I think I might be in a reading slump. I keep starting books and then not getting half way through before stopping. Just not feeling it so far this year I guess.

[pedanther]

I've just finished the new Liaden novel, Diviner's Bow, which I devoured under a day.

Lately I've been spending so much time working on excavating the depths of my to-read pile that I'd been beginning to forget what it's like to read a book I really enjoy, with characters I like spending time with.

[wideeyedloner]

I’m reading Little Weirds by Jenny Slate.

It’s a sweet, whimsical, and energetic read.

[silversea]

I finished Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb, and unfortunately I didn't really enjoy it.

I'm in a bit of a reading slump, so I'm reading very slowly. Currently on Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, and it's decent so far, just haven't grabbed my interest yet.

[screechfox]

Finished a couple of shorter books in the past week: Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green, which I loved, and The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar, which I also enjoyed.

I have one story left to go in Stag Dance by Torrey Peters. In non-fiction, I picked up Young Elizabeth by Nicola Tallis from a train station on Tuesday evening and am about a third of the way through - it's about the young life of Queen Elizabeth I, from birth to her coronation, aged 25.

[cactus_rs]

I'm mostly working on The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and En attendant la montée des eaux by Maryse Condé, with a long term book club read (How to be an Anti-Capitalist) in the background.

[valoise]

I thought I'd read all of Discworld, but recently realized that I'd missed Thief of Time. I found an audiobook version with multiple actors that was really well done. I love stories that revolve around Death and his granddaughter Susan and this was a lot of fun.

Next I'm eyeing the Hugo finalist list. I've only read one of the novels so I've got a lot to choose from. I'll see what the library has on the shelves to start with.

[skye_writer]

Still reading Iron Widow, Xiran Jay Zhao.

However, I also read John Green's new book Everything is Tuberculosis in its entirety on Tuesday. It was fascinating, and the story of Henry Reider (a tuberculosis patient/survivor in Sierra Leone Green met in 2019) is astoundingly well-told.

[elizalavelle]

I keep hearing great things about Everything is Tuberculosis. I'll have to get to that one.

[skye_writer]

It's a very interesting read; I recommend it!!

[screechfox]

Everything is Tuberculosis was great! Using Henry's story to weave through it all was a really good choice.

[skye_writer]

Yes! I really liked that Green kept the focus on Henry and his mother throughout, and made it more about Henry than himself by using Henry's own words about his experiences.

[captaincassidy]

Z-Volution (Jurassic Dead #2) by David Sakmyster 😂

[elizalavelle]

I'm reading Perfect Little Children by Sophie Hannah and it's such a weird premise and I'm baffled about what could possibly actually be happening.

The main character drives by her former friend's home 12 years after she last saw her and sees her children who are somehow still 3 and 5 years old, just like they were 12 years ago. This doesn't appear to be a sci-fi book at all and I can't figure out what could be happening so I'm looking forward to getting to the end of the book and getting it all explained.