RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[spiralsheep]

What are you reading?

Murderbot community discussing the books and tv series at murderbotbookclub.

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Aurora Australis readalong 5 / 10, Southward Bound

[spiralsheep]

Aurora Australis readalong 5 / 10, Southward Bound, 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 5 / 10:
https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/667406.html

Text of Southward Bound by Lapsus Linguæ (warning for putting down an injured pony):
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/Southward_Bound

Readalong intro and links to discussion posts 1-4:
https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html

Reminder for next week, An Interview with an Emperor, by Alastair Mackay, about an imagined discussion with an Emperor Penguin:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/An_Interview_with_an_Emperor

[spiralsheep]

Recently finished reading The Museum of Whales You Will Never See, and Other Excursions to Iceland's Most Unusual Museums, by A. Kendra Greene, which is a collection of non-fiction (mostly) essays about the meaning and practice of making and keeping museums in the context of the 266 museums (official tourist board count) in Iceland where the population is about 330,000 people (= 1 museum for every 1250 people). The writing style is a crossover between quirky popular travel writing and the publisher Granta's thinky-thoughts house style. Posted seven quotes because it's very quotable:
https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/667697.html

Currently reading Cwen, by Alice Albinnia, 2021, which is trans-inclusive, women-centred, feminist speculative fiction set on an archipelago of small islands in the British Isles but where 51% of local power has recently been legislated to women (including Mx Thompson who was hired to teach at the high school). Written in a very readable style, with the mischievousness of the best feminist fiction.

And Don't Kiss Me, the Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore, 2006, which is a collection of essays about the lives and art of CC & MM, plus a generously illustrated catalogue of the Jersey Heritage Trust's collection of Cahun & Moore's art, letters, and other archived documents such as news clippings (leaving out the contents of CC & MM's published books). Awkward shape and heavy weight but on special loan so I have to read and return it quickly.

[petrea_mitchell]

Just finished Once Upon a Tome. An absolutely delightful book, recommended to anyone looking for an easy, upbeat read, plus you do get to learn a lot about the antiquarian book trade.

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Agatha Christie's Endless Night. I am torturing my offspring by way of a Mother-Son book club with Because of Winn-Dixie. I put down the Inspector Rebus because it was shaping up to be an 'evil cops club from the past' is being investigated and I just wasn't feeling it after just finishing Lucy Foley's The Guest List which was 'evil private school boys' club kills a kid' fast forward 20 years.

[zenigotchas]

I do so love a title with a good pun.... Lol

[soricel]

Cwen sounds like it would be up my alley...going to look into it!

[soricel]

About a third of the way through Eric Hobsbawn's On Nationalism. Some of the historical nitty-gritty is going over my head, but I'm learning some things about the origins of nationalism that feel useful for understanding Our Current Sociopolitical Moment.

[spiralsheep]

I'm on page 69 and there's now also a trans woman character Lucette Smith. Some of the reviews complain about too many characters but I think they're supposed to be like a Greek Chorus of women and when individual character matters then it's made clear (so far). Can't believe nobody recced this to me!

[spiralsheep]

I also enjoyed Oliver Darkshire's Once Upon a Tome, which I read because his, sorry, Southeran's official twitter feed used to be such fun.

[quillpunk]

I just started reading A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft. Enjoying it so far!

[cyare]

I finished "A Charm of Magpies" by K.J. Charles and I'm in love with this series! Historical (Victorian) paranormal m/m romance with a very fun worldbuilding and well-rounded characters, it's definitely going in my favourites <3

Also watched the first 2 episodes of Murderbot and had a lot of fun, I'm liking the adaptation so far!

[silversea]

Finished reading Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett, which I thought was decent enough to continue the trilogy, but I still much prefer Bennett's other series, Shadow of the Leviathan. Hopefully I can get around to reading the rest of the series sometimes this year.

I also read The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar, but unfortunately didn't like it much. The themes are great, criticizing the prison/slave labor and performative activism, but the characters didn't have much characterization, and it was mostly forgettable.

I read A Bánh Mì for Two by Trinity Nguyen yesterday, mainly because I realized I haven't read a single thing by Asian Americans this month despite it being AAPI Heritage Month. Romance isn't usually my thing, but I wanted to support sapphic Asian stories and this was cute enough. I've never been to Vietnam before, but the descriptions in the book were lovely and I wish I could visit in the future.

Continuing reading books by Asian Americans this month with They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran. I read her previous book and enjoyed it so I'm looking forward to this one. This is another horror YA, but now set in Louisiana.

I'm hoping to read Love Points to You by Alice Lin (asexual and sapphic romance!), but unfortunately my library doesn't have it.

[x003]

Still midway through Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber, which is good but also sometimes a little dense after work. Definitely worth reading, although I reckon it'll take me a good while to finish.

I also finally got into Embassytown by China Miéville after bouncing off it several times. It's really good--glad I stuck with it!

[x003]

Ahh, A Charm of Magpies has been on my TBR forever--but good worldbuilding and characterisation are HUGE sells for me in M/M romance, so it'll have to slither up the pile. Thank you for the rec!

[olivermoss]

Finished Hell Bent, the sequel to Ninth House. Sounds like we should hear about the final book in the series soon, and I'm already looking forward to re-reading both in preparation.

Finished Blood Trail by Tanya Huff, and I'm onto the next book.

I DNF'd Left Handed Booksellers of London

Also starting Grishaverse

[got_quiet]

I just finished The Maltese Falcon

This book falls into that group of media where when you read it for the first time in the modern age you see a lot of cliches, but that is probably because it is responsible for establishing a lot of those cliches. It felt quintessential hard boiled detective to me, including some of the more poorly aged elements, like the treatment of the gay character and women, but looking past those sigh worthy moments I thought it was a lot of fun.

[drawnecromancy]

I finally picked back up the Hawkmoon series by Michael Moorcock... same guy who wrote the Elric of Melnibone books (I have not read Elric at all). I forgot how batshit they were but at least it's really, REALLY funny in a "put your brain down and stop thinking" sort of way.

I think last week I was talking about reading wuthering heights, which I did finish in the meantime. My heights WERE thoroughly wuthered, and I am fascinated by the characters. I need to pick them apart like bugs. You know ? Fascinating.

[pedanther]

Re-reading Howl's Moving Castle for an online book club. Really enjoying the book, finding the book club disappointing.

[cyare]

The pile is bigger than a dragon's hoard and sometimes it's difficult to chose which book to read first ;A; ACoM was on my reading list for 5+ years and I'm glad I finally got to it!

[spiralsheep]

It's lucky there are so many book/reading clubs because I find choosing one that suits can be very hit and miss. When the current fashion for book clubs everywhere began I chose by the type of books they read: miss. But I have found compatible groups, who aren't always the readers I might've expected, and I've found their discussion and reading recs have been very good for me. I wouldn't have Laurent Binet's Perspectives on my To Reads if it wasn't for my favourite book club because it's not something I'd choose for myself at all but I know I'll enjoy it.

[spiralsheep]

Earlier this year I read a book about the Brontes from the perspective of a local man walking where they walked, and linking the places they lived, and although it wasn't a great book it gave me a more useful perspective than any amount of literary criticism, for Emily and Anne especially (Charlotte's work is more amenable to conventional analysis now, even though she was pushing boundaries at the time). Maybe because the way people behave in classic literature is often inexplicable except by shrugging shoulders and admitting that characters can be obviously very human while behaving as outliers? Or perhaps I approach everything on foot because I am extremely pedestrian, lol.

[valoise]

Spent my reading time catching up with the latest Doctor Who Magazine and short fiction in the most recent Clarkesworld and Azimovs magazines

[spiralsheep]

All excellent choices!

[drawnecromancy]

Ohhh, interesting !

I honestly have not read much of any literary criticism around Wuthering Heights, despite there being a whole "introduction and commentary" with the French translation I read. (Maybe I'll read it in english eventually, it was just that I found that translation for free in a book box). I honestly gave up on reading the "introduction and commentary" pretty much the moment the writer was like "she was SO YOUNG you WOULD NOT BELIEVE how YOUNG she was when writing this, SUCH A YOUNG GIRL" and that's like okay, she died when she was 28, but there's a chance she didn't write that book when she was literally 12. It felt very, uh... demeaning ! Even though I think it was meant as a compliment on how a young writer can write really good stuff, it felt a little bit like repackaged infantilization of women, so I didn't give more time to the literary analysis within.

I do think your approach is one I would vibe with more, lol.

[spiralsheep]

I mean, yes, they were young but they had been through a lot. They travelled to learn and to teach, which was a surprising amount of moving around for young women of their class and historical period. They would have met a wide variety of people in their father's parish, and making visits as teachers (to chaperone their students). And they read and had imaginations too.