booknook | RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

I've decided to read Aurora Australis, 1908, the first book written and published in Antarctica, during the 1907-09 Nimrod Expedition of a 15 man shore party to the Antarctic, lead by Ernest Shackleton. The text is easily available free online through digitised copies or wikisource &c. I'm planning to read at a rate of one text from the anthology each week for ten weeks and y'all are welcome to join me (with weekly reminders and posts with invitation to mull over each text the following week). Introductory readalong post and reminder to read The Ascent of Mount Erubus [sic] is at my journal:

Text: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/The_Ascent_of_Mount_Erubus

Readalong intro: https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html

Finished Late Light by Michael Malay that I mentioned last week, which is 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.

Also read Between Britain by Alastair Moffat, which is a book of popular historical and cultural anecdotes strung on the thread of walks along the Scottish / English border from coast to coast. The author's easy going attitude and readable prose seems to have overcome my reading ennui, which is funny because I only chose this as it needs to return to the library. I've ordered another book by Moffat and put a third on my library list for maybe later.

Began reading The Britannias by Alice Albinnia, which is supposedly a history (popular / journalistic) of selected "British" islands and the introduction is self-contradictory (fair enough - so is history) but also wrong on one key point by about 7,500 years. I like the prose style though so I'll keep reading and remove it from Mount ToBeRead.

Finished Stag Dance by Torrey Peters last week, thought it was really good!

Non-fiction, still working through Young Elizabeth by Nicola Tallis. It's interesting, but I don't love the writing style. I hadn't realised that Mary I initially planned to let Lady Jane Grey live.

Despite having three books out from the library (The Monster by Seth Dickinson, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, and Hungerstone by Kat Dunn) I've started a reread of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I needed something "light", I think, and they're quick reads. I've only got the books up to a certain point (whichever were out in mid/late-2020) so it shouldn't take too long.

Mary's marriage to Phillip of Spain made more problems than it solved, including Spain's demand for the execution of Jane (and Elizabeth was later very harsh to Jane's two younger sisters).

Interesting! I can't remember if the book included that detail - probably, but maybe I missed it! It linked Jane's execution more to the Wyatt Rebellion related to Elizabeth also providing pressure on Mary to remove other contenders for the throne.

I feel so sad for Lady Jane - afaik it was her father's continued greed for the throne, after what seems like harsh treatment throughout her short life, that eventually had her killed for treason.

Murderbot! Still only read the first one, but what a delightful character.

Jane's father was executed but Jane was spared, and wasn't especially a figurehead for further machinations (because the plotters had other preferred candidates), until the Spanish insisted on Jane's execution as part of Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain iirc.

I misremembered, thank you for the correction!

I think most popular media retells the story the way you remembered it so it's not surprising people think that's what happened. :-)

Jane Grey is such a tragic figure, at least in my mental image of her. There's an episode of a Doctor Who spin-off where one character travels back in time and ends up befriending her in the days of her queenship, and she's fascinated me ever since. I really ought to dig up a book focused on her somewhen.

Murderbot is such a great character! I definitely recommend the rest if you ever feel like them.

I mainlined Melissa Scott's Astreiant series and finished it a few days ago. My brain is full of nitpicks for it, which means I loved it, because I usually only nitpick novels that I love or novels that infuriate me.

Now I'm attempting to continue with my former RIPs that got sidelined by my descent into the Astreiant rabbit hole. Finished C.S. Pacat's "Dark Rise" way too late yesterday evening (totally saw that twist coming) and picked up Dorothy Dunnett's "The Game of Kings" again during today's lunch break (slightly baffled by this one, but so far it's interesting).

Nitpicking for love is so much more enjoyable than nitpicking out of necessity. :D

"I want it to be the best it can be, because I love it!" :D

Polish the shiny thing! :D

Ooo, I love the Astreiant series! Actually I need to reread the first three books because a ~~fourth~~ sixth was just released (and a ~~fifth~~ seventh on the way, I think)-- a good excuse. ;)

I've had the Lymond Chronicles on my TBR literally for...9 years...(💀) but have been too intimidated to actually start them, so there they wait. Maybe I can actually read one within the next decade...

Edited (good god I'm behind on this series more than I thought) 2025-04-17 17:44 (UTC)

good god I'm behind on this series more than I thought

Then you've got many nice treats waiting for you. A win! \o/ :D

Very true! :D

Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings. Space travel, time travel, it's a very fun ride so far.

I just looked up the back-cover description of that and it sure looks interesting.

Currently making my way through How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive, a book I put on my TBR list after seeing it recommended in the Economist's list of best books of the year last year. A book which I am not paranoid about being seen reading after recent political developments in the US and B&N cancelling my order because it allegedly couldn't get hold of the book when it was published here in January, nope, not at all.

You'll have to acquire some dustjackets from innocuous books to wrap around your secret subversive samisdat....

I'm still deep in my LGBT romance phase. Today I finished "Och, Ness" by Eryn Hawk, a book about a guy who moves to Scotland, falls in love, and discovers a secret about Nessie... Very cute, it was an easy read which is exactly what I need these days!

Easy reading is under-rated imo. :D

Oh hey, I'm actually reading something for once! Slowly reading Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha, because it was languishing on my tablet and activation energy was easier to read something on my tablet than to get up and grab the books I have out from the library. :p I'm finding the characters intriguing, though I'm having some issues with who is the "viewpoint" character - they seem to switch a lot? so I think it's actually one person but then find out the paragraph is from another person's viewpoint? I'm pretty sure these are indie published books, but I've read other indie published books that were PERFECT (looking at your books, Courtney Milan) so I can't really blame it on that, but still, it leaves me wondering if the writing would have been tighter had the book had a traditional editor. Still, it's fun! And the world building is interesting! And I'm wondering just who is going to end up in bed with who (voting for a polycule myself right now).

In other book news, the recently created

all_worlds_of_mccaffrey inspired me to borrow a McCaffrey book from the library; I've never read one. Hoping to read that, too.

Courtney Milan is definitely a high bar for indie authors, and her readers are so lucky.

I read a lot of McCaffrey when I was a teen. I hope you find something you like. She wrote a variety of differing settings and characters.

I finished up A Crown of Swords last week, and am now starting on The Path of Daggers. The Wheel of Time grind still continues week after week, though I've also started reading Serious Weakness on the side, which is. An absolute insane novel thus far.

Edited 2025-04-16 20:06 (UTC)

Currently still slowly reading TH White's 'The Once and Future King' King Arthur collection. I think I would be faster if the tone, especially now in the second book and apparently futher on as well, wasn't so deeply melancholy? The author was a melancholy man himself afaik, and it's harder to read when depressed.

Also some non-fiction, 'The Anxious Person's Guide to Non-Monogamy' by Lola Phoenix, which I'm enjoying. Apparently the author has a podcast that I haven't yet tried; picked it up on the basis of the title.

Aside from that, various sequential art - Asadora volume 4 by Naoki Urasawa, which was very tense and I'm planning to pick up further volumes ASAP. Finished the first arc of 'Batgirl' by Tate Brombal and Takeshi Miyazawa in single issues, which I loved - it was focused on Cassandra Cain and her assasin birth mother Lady Shiva. Read the short graphic novel 'Homunculus' by Joe Sparrow, about the relationship between an artificial intelligence and her creator - very sweet and sad, had me weeping at the end. Also a few assorted single issues of various cape comics (Absolute Flash, New Gods).

Ohh I gotta add "The Anxious Person's Guide to Non-Monogamy' to my tbr list - as an incredibly anxious person that sounds like a good read haha

I hadn't heard of Asadora before, but it sounds really interesting! I'm going to add it to my TBR list.

I always have like three books started at once to give myself options so right now I'm reading the Unfinished Tales of Númenor & Middle-Earth which I'm about half-way through! I'd probably be done with it but I stopped partway through to re-read the Silmarillion haha but we're working on it again

Also reading On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder since I'm trying to read more non-fiction this year and considering the state of uhhh everything [waves hand vaguely] - it is a good read so far even if it is giving me anxiety

And I just started The Tradition by Jericho Brown (poetry) which has had some hard hitting lines already and I'm excited to read the rest!

No matter how sore the injury
Has left you, you sit understanding
Yourself as a human being finally
Free now that nobody’s got to love you.

I just finished How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell this morning, which I really loved and highly recommend. It's not an actual how-to book, it's more thinking about the connection between social media/being productive/capitalism and how stepping back from that means stepping INTO something else-- ideally something IRL like sitting in a park and listening to birds.

And I finished a short novella that I didn't realize was a prequel to another book, but the sort that should be read AFTER that book and not before...if that makes sense. It was The Twelfth Enchantment by K.L. Noone, a queer fantasy romance which was very sweet. And I will read the other book eventually.

Ooh, the attention economy book sounds great, I'll have to keep an eye out for it. I've been wrestling with my relationship with social media for a while, and I need something to kick me into gear about it!

I've finished:

* Camp Damascus - It was okay. I wanted to like it, but not for me

* The Ninth House - Loved it so much. Yale is such a good Urban Fantasy setting. It was wild reading something set in my home state on my way back East. I love her writing and was surprised to see she's the author of Six of Crows, people have told me to read the books and well, I now love this author so that was good advice

* Children of the Night - I read this a stupid number of times when I was young. Working on a full re-read of the Di Tregarde stuff

* Bones Beneath My Skin - A solid book in some ways. Not my favorite TJ Klune book

* A Rival Most Vial - Lit-RPG but also gay romance. It's really good and I feel like this is a exactly the book some people are looking for. I didn't quite click with the Lit-RPG setting

I am currently on Hell Bent, sequel to The Ninth House, and also The Left Handed Booksellers of London

I keep forgetting I have A Rival Most Vial on my TBR and I specifically put it on there because of the lit-RPG gay romance angle. Thank you for the reminder! I'll sling it onto my ereader now before I forget again...

I'll be looking forward to seeing what you think of it!

I've picked up Down and Out in Purgatory again, and I'm also working my way through A Choice of Catastrophes by Isaac Asimov - non-fiction, the hook is that it's about all the ways the world might end, but you also learn a lot of general science and history along the way.

Yesterday, I read A Woman of No Importance, so I've now read all four of Oscar Wilde's drawing room plays. I had the impression before I started that they were all comedies, but I'm not so sure now: Earnest is definitely a comedy, but A Woman of No Importance is more of a drama that happens to be stuffed with people saying witty things, and the other two fall somewhere in between.

A Woman of No Importance is the only one of the four I don't recall ever seeing.

Have you read / seen Mrs Warren's Profession, 1893, by George Bernard Shaw? Definately more comedy than melodrama and yet not lacking dramatic events.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Warren%27s_Profession

Wikipedia says it's the least often revived or adapted of Wilde's plays, and I think I can see why; it doesn't quite come together, I think. It has some oft-quoted lines in it, though I realised afterward that the reason one of them was so familiar was that Wilde recycled it in Earnest.

I have not read or seen Mrs Warren's Profession, but it's been on the list to get around to one of these days.

One less than perfect play out of four is a hit rate most playwrights would envy.

I was lucky enough to see Felicity Kendal as Mrs Warren and she absolutely made the role live.

Finished When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo, The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, and Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite.

I loved the exploration of stories being told differently in When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain. It wasn't as impactful as The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but I still loved the rich worldbuilding and the stunning prose.

I've already read Ray Nayler's book The Mountain in the Sea, and didn't have a particularly high opinion of it, so I wasn't expecting much from The Tusks of Extinction. It was excellent, much better and I think the novella length fits his writing more. Also mildly funny to read this the week after the news about direwolves being brought back from extinction (or not), because the method the novella discussed for bringing back the mammoths were fairly identical from what I understand.

Murder by Memory was the weakest, but still rather enjoyable. Seems like it'll be a series, which I might be willing to read as long as they continue to be in the novella length.

Also finished The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, which I didn't like. It was very disappointing, having focused too much on the romance and not much on the imperialist themes I was hoping to read.

I unfortunately DNF'd Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, I think the depression was a lot for me, and I couldn't do that right now.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky is an interesting post-apocalyptic exploration of robots and what it means to be sentient. I enjoyed it, it's the first book I've read by him.

That description sounds very intriguing, I'm definitely adding it to the read later pile :D

RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

Invitation to a readalong of Aurora Australis, 1908, in ten chapters

Reading

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject