RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[spiralsheep]

What are you reading?

Current booknook friending meme:

https://booknook.dreamwidth.org/37093.html

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Aurora Australis readalong 2 / 10, Midwinter Night

[spiralsheep]

Aurora Australis readalong 2 / 10, Midwinter Night, post for comment, reaction, discussion, fanworks, links, and whatever obliquely related matters your heart desires. You can join the readalong at any time or skip sections or go back to earlier posts. It's all good. :-)

Reaction post 2 / 10: https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/665029.html

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

Readalong intro: https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html
Reaction post 1 / 10: https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/663652.html

Reminder for next week: Trials of a Messman, by "Messman" [anon], a humorous account of the expedition's eating arrangements:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/Trials_of_a_Messman

[spiralsheep]

I finished The Britannias by Alice Albinnia, which is a popular history of islands associated with the UK. Made me want to find out more about Claude Cahun.

Someone read an illustrated, book length, poem aloud to me which was an unusual and enjoyable experience.

Finished book 47: The Masquerades of Spring, by Ben Aaronovitch, a Rivers of London series fantasy novel, 5/5.
I've always enjoyed Aaronovitch's work, since I saw Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988, but this felt as if he'd written it for me. I loved every detail! Might even replace What Abigail Did That Summer as my favourite Rivers of London book. And, honestly, if you'd asked me if what I truly wanted was a re-telling of Jeeves and Wooster set in New York, and particularly Harlem, in the Jazz Age, with magic and fairies, then I probably wouldn't have been that enthusiastic, although I would've signed up for the knowing word games, obv. I do like that Aaronovitch has the publishing credit to be able to indulge his whims for side projects because he's so good at them and they prevent the main series from becoming repetitive, hopefully for the author as well as his readers. I'm looking forward to Stone and Sky even more now! P.S. I also loved that at the end he gifted four plot bunnies to his fan writers and co-pro-writers (+ earlier in the story, mentioning the possibility of Gussie and Lucy visiting New Orleans, where is Beauregard is from).

Currently reading poetry in Unincorporated Persons in the Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland.

[valoise]

The Britannias sounds interesting. The history of places that are often overlooked can be fascinating.

[spiralsheep]

The Britannias is very densely packed with sourced facts (a few of which are still inevitably wrong, lol), each island is viewed through the lens of a limited time period or set of themes, but also includes the author's speculations. I enjoyed Albinnia's prose style and decided I might also like her fiction so I've acquired Cwen, although not to read immediately (note: Cwen is a feminist book about women and community that includes a Mx character in the wider cast). Some of the chapters will be duds for some people (nothing has ever made the Second English Civil War interesting to me) and others won't be detailed enough (tell me more about Tortola...) but the book tried to do a lot and mostly succeeded. I learned some weird facts about the Channel Islands that led me on a brief wiki-tour, and also made me want to find out more about Marcel Moore and Claude Cahun, which is the point of reading popular general history for me: to find subjects I want to know about in more depth. I wish I'd waited for the paperback though because the book was sooo heavy! :-)

[wearing_tearing]

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova: slow as heck in pacing, but I'm loving the plot development and all of the descriptions of traveling!

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness: feeling like the series is going in circles a bit? I'm ready for some definite answers about things and less of Diana and Matthew arguing about her safety.

Enigma by RuNyx: reading this solely for the vibes and am very pleased with the murder mystery set up so far.

[pedanther]

I'm still working my way through A Choice of Catastrophes on the non-fiction side, but apart from that I'm currently between books. I'll see what takes my fancy when I go through the monthly reading challenge prompts tomorrow.

During the week, I had a shot at Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, which had been rather imprecisely described to me as a comedy: it's dark and absurd, and I didn't find anything to laugh at in it - I didn't like the protagonist much, even before the murder, but I empathised with his haplessness too much to find him laughable - and I packed it in before it got as far as the first policeman.

[ixalisse]

Divine Fate by Morgan B. Lee. It's the last book in the Cursed Legacies series, and it's been an intriguing ride. Classified as RH paranormal romance, the storyline is original and compelling. While I'll miss the series once this book is over, I can say that I've appreciated this universe so much.

Just starting on the Dictionary of Demons by M. Belanger. My copy is revised and expanded non-fiction. Its wonderful for reference material for occult knowledge and demonologists, the biggest collection of names of demons (and angels, I believe) comprised in one compendium. It was a rare treat to find in a local, indie bookstore and I'm excited to not only use this towards spiritual practices, but creative writing ones as well.

[petrea_mitchell]

Almost done with The Best of Henry Kuttner. The short stories have been mostly good, the longer pieces have tended to drag. Probably my favorite so far was "Exit the Professor", so I'm delighted to have just encountered a second story about the same characters.

[pedanther]

That's the Hogben stories, right? I have the collected edition that Borderlands Press published a while back, which I keep forgetting to actually read.

[petrea_mitchell]

There's a book of just those stories? I wasn't planning to keep this collection, but I might want to get that one.

[pedanther]

There is, but I don't know if you'll be able to find a copy of it if you go looking now. I'd forgotten that it was one of those small-print-run-based-on-preorders situations, and the publisher's website says they've sold out all their leftover copies.

[althea_valara]

I read KC Davis' "How To Keep House While Drowning" in one sitting. The short chapters really helped, but I'm still surprised my attention span let me sit for almost two hours...

Otherwise, I am slowly reading "Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age" by Norman Ohler. I've decided to join one of my library's book clubs (they have two!) and that's the book for this month. I don't normally read non-fiction but the book has been interesting thus far.

I also started a reread of the first Artemis Fowl novel, but I'm having issues with attention span, partially because I have the dead tree paperback version and I'm finding it less pleasant to read than an ebook. It's like there's not enough contrast between the text and background, which just makes me feel OLD.

[screechfox]

This just prompted me to reserve How to Keep House While Drowning from the library finally! I've been curious about it, being someone who struggles with that kind of stuff.

[tozka]

It's like there's not enough contrast between the text and background, which just makes me feel OLD.

I feel old every time I have to bump up the font size on my ereader. ;_; But also YES, since getting an ereader with a backlight it's very hard to read regular paper books unless I also have a light directly on the page.

[meteordust]

I loved "How To Keep House While Drowning"! So helpful and kind.

[bluapapilio]

I'm listening to The Serpent Sea (Books of the Raksura #2) and All for the Game (The Foxhole Court #1) and enjoying them, but my mood/tired levels have made it slow going recently. 😔

[spiralsheep]

I hope your energy is restored soon, and you find a better mood for reading (or not reading and just relaxing).

[bluapapilio]

Thank you! 💖

[screechfox]

I finished reading The Chromatic Fantasy which I still heartily recommend, and still in a graphic novels mood, I finally got around to a reread of Nimona I've been meaning to do for at least two years. It still holds up!

Non-fiction, I'm still working on Mary Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser. It's interesting, but at about the halfway mark, I'm very aware that I've passed her period of (relative) stability and it's only going to get bleaker and bleaker from here. And this is a long book, so it's going to be at least 300 pages more of dense unhappiness. I'm wondering if I should take a break and read something a little lighter.

I want to pick up another bit of fiction, but despite having four books from the library right now, I don't feel in the mood for any of them.

[thrilleddumpling]

Nimona <333 Thanks for reminding me of this graphic novel, I need a gift for a friend's birthday in a few weeks and I remember that they mentioned wanting to buy the paper version, it'll be the perfect gift :D

[screechfox]

:D Happy to accidentally help! I think there's a tenth anniversary edition now that looks very snazzy.

[thrilleddumpling]

Time to do some research, then :D

[thrilleddumpling]

I finished three books again this week, how I love holing up during the long weekends :D

"Muscling Through" by J.L. Merrow is a m/m romance, short but sweet, it gave me the warm fuzzies <3

I also read two books by the same author that are part of The Plumber's Mate Mysteries series. The first one felt a bit too tropey for my liking, but the second one was better! I liked the mysteries, the characters are a lot of fun and I can see myself enjoying more of this series.

I'm in between books at the moment, but I'd like to read something fun next. I've had Alex Gabriel's "Love for the Cold-Blooded - or: The Part-Time Evil Minion’s Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero" in my TBR pile for a while, maybe I'll start that one.

[silversea]

Finished reading Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney and Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miya Lee. I liked the former just fine, but I admittedly still don't get the widespread popularity Rooney has. And the latter falls in the niche category of cozy Korean and Japanese literature that's largely musings on life, but unfortunately does not stand out enough.

Currently reading Conclave by Robert Harris. I swear it's not because of real life events, I just enjoyed the movie that much, and the library hold came through coincidentally at the same time. I'm liking the book so far.

I'm also doing a buddy read of Counterfeit by Kristen Chen, which we definitely started because of real life events, haha. I like the book but I'm still pretty early on. I was amused that both Conversations with Friends and this one has no quotation marks, it's such a rarity yet I somehow managed to pick two back to back.

[cornerofmadness]

Bodies and Battlements, a cozy mystery arc set in Yorkshire, not bad so far

[valoise]

Only one book this week, Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I loved the incredibly strange biology on the planet and the plot of the story was unique and really good. It did feel like there was a bit too much wordy exposition in the middle to my taste, but I'm glad I kept reading to the very well done ending.

[tozka]

I decided to reread the first four books in the Murder Sprees and Mute Decrees series by Jennifer Cody, so I can go straight into the newest book that was recently released. It's a queer paranormal romance series staring a mute 20 something and a supernatural hitman (basically) and their collection of friends and found family. It has a love-it-or-hate-it kind of humor and the author is definitely plotting by the seat of her pants, which could turn some people off. But I found them fun the first time around so I'm hoping I still like them on the reread, too!

[meteordust]

I finished The Wicked Day by Mary Stewart. I loved her first three Arthurian books, and I loved the first three-quarters of this one. But the ending felt a bit like she was suddenly trying to pretzel her characters into the story beats of the fall of Camelot, and it didn't really fit how they'd been written so far. I don't know, I'd loved to have seen her own unique take on it.