RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[spiralsheep]

What are you reading?

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Aurora Australis readalong 9 / 10, Life Under Difficulties, discussion post:
https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/672259.html

My current reading

70. When the Earth was Green, by Riley Black, 2025, non-fiction popular palaeontology.

71. Inventing the Renaissance, by Ada Palmer, 2025, non-fiction history / historiography. Very good so far, apart from one typo in which Jacob Burckhardt lived to the age of 169. Nice.

72. Book published in the 1920s, read for a reading challenge. Not a great choice, apart from the fact it's short, but I've read most of the usual suspects from that decade. I probably should've asked for recs of less well-known books, or re-read something I already know I like.

[thepasteldyke]

Not reading a very happy book right now, unfortunately, but I'm reading a Swedish book series with the English title Don't ever wipe tears without gloves written by Jonas Gardell. It's about how AIDS impacted the gay scene in Stockholm. The characters are fictional but you know that what it's based on isn't, AIDS had a devastating impact in Sweden's gay community just as it did in so many other places. I'm on the last part, and it's been very hard to read, I've cried a lot while reading them. There's a TV show based on the books that I haven't seen yet, I imagine it's a difficult watch.

[spiralsheep]

I'm glad you're brave enough to take on that history, and remember the people who were there.

[thepasteldyke]

I feel like it's an important part of our history to know at least some things about. I want to learn more about LGBTQ+ history in my country, I feel like I know more about US than Swedish queer history since I'm mostly in English speaking spaces online. And this book series might be fiction but it's one of the most well known series in Sweden that talks about AIDS.

[shipperslist]

There's a TV show based on the books that I haven't seen yet, I imagine it's a difficult watch.

I saw the miniseries two years ago and while it was heartbreaking to watch, it was also heartwarming and wonderful. I laughed and cried, sometimes at the same time. The book series has been on my list ever since but I haven't gotten to it yet.

[thepasteldyke]

From what you've written about the TV series it seems like it was adapted pretty well, the books definitely makes you both laugh and cry at times as well.

The biggest difference (I think? Again, as i havent watched it yet and only have what you've wrtten to go by) the TV series mostly focuses on Rasmus and Benjamin, the books also talk quite a bit about the friend group they make through Paul, but I imagine they had to pick a main focus when adapting it.

[shipperslist]

Oh, no, the found family and the tight-knit friend group is there, and the ending (where I laughed and cried at the same time) was very much about them.

[silversea]

Reading through the Singing Hills Cycle, will start The Brides of High Hill tonight.

I'm a little sad that the later books have deviated from Cleric Chih being a listener/observer, I felt the frame narrative was much stronger with them having a limited role.

[lil_1337]

I'm reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier the author of The Martian. Like The Martian there is a lot of science and the main character is stranded alone. The author does such a good job of being inside the protagonist's head, sharing what he feeling. He also balances some high stakes tension with humor.

So far I am liking it a lot.

[vriddy]

I really enjoyed this book! It was the kind of story I needed to read, around the time I got my hands on it. The beginning and figuring out with the protagonist what happened was fascinating!

[lil_1337]

I'm about a third of the way through and really enjoying it.

[dhampyresa]

Recently finished M. A. Bennett and I'm feeling uneasily like I just read an anti-abortion book? Has anyone else read it?

[spiralsheep]

Young Gothic? I haven't read it but I've seen some mixed reviews of that plot point.

[dhampyresa]

yes! I swear I wrote out "Young Gothic by", I don't know where it went -- I'll blame the cat. If you happen to have links to those reviews I would be happy to read them.

[spiralsheep]

I'm convinced dreamwidth + my low bandwidth internet connection creates typos and hiatuses in my comments - definitely not my own incompetence! ;-)

I don't recall any specific in depth analysis of Young Gothic. It was more multiple people noting the backstory cliches specific to women that, when encountered often enough, seem prejudicial: sexual abuse as motivation plus, in this case, the abortion aspect.

(Mainland Britain has had stable legal access to abortion for about 55 years now so younger women often don't have to think much about it except encountering unusual negatives that stand out from the usual positive outcomes. Our Parliament are currently voting to make abortion even more legally secure for women so fringe protestors, mostly Christian groups funded from the US, often aren't understood as a potential threat. But the current situation is the result of decades of dedicated campaigning by women's groups, obviously.)

[dhampyresa]

Yeah, there were a bunch of clichés in the backstories -- not just Eve, but Ren too. What's this? The gay kid has catholic/religious trauma? You don't say.

France recently made access to abortion part of our constitution which was a great relief -- we also have far right anti-choice fringe :(

[shipperslist]

I'm reading Reboot by Melara Dark and enjoying myself. It's a bit like groundhog day mixed with the walking dead but with monsters instead of zombies. 😁

[petrea_mitchell]

Almost done with Cunning Folk. My pace has picked up when I have a chance to read it, but life is really busy these last couple weeks.

[angelcage]

Count Zero by William Gibson. Just started, not far enough in to comment yet!

[zenigotchas]

Penultimate chapter of Beyond Good And Evil. You can learn a lot about a person just from their philosophies. Neech sees us as such animals but still encourages vibrancy like studying and hotly debating our truths. For an cynic he's rather curious and optimistic!

[inchoatewords]

Reading Persuasion by Jane Austen. I've read it before, but it's been some time. Our book club chose it as a classic to read this month. There are some things that I find rather relatable even in our modern era, at least some feelings.

[mucky]

Just finished Garth Nix's Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz, currently doing The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes for nonfiction and thinking of picking up Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi (I'm big on Gothic horror/fantasy atm).

[pedanther]

You find me between fiction books again. Since last week, I've started and then DNFed a couple of books that a younger me bought second-hand because they were cheap and seemed interesting but current me found insufferable. So for the past couple of days, I've been taking a break from fiction reading and binge-watching a show I was behind on instead.

On the non-fiction side, A Choice of Catastrophes is talking about pandemics and showing its age again.

[liminaltime]

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. I started it then put it down last year, so I had to start over.

[rocky41_7]

On audiobook I'm working through "Sundial" by Catriona Ward, which I'd class as horror, with a heavy focus on toxic family dynamics. Too soon for me to make a judgement yet, but I will say the author has done a great job with the interactions between characters so far.

On paper I'm on "The Monster Baru Cormorant," sequel to "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" and I continue to be riveted! I can't wait to see how this story ends.

[zenigotchas]

Is Sundial domestic horror?

[rocky41_7]

I think it could be classified that way! Most of the horror presently does come from the characters themselves, with a hint at a minor supernatural element (which may not be supernatural after all).

[zenigotchas]

Hmmmm maybe I should pick it up then, I want to read more domestic horror!

[cornerofmadness]

Chasing Evil a book by an FBI agent about his work with John Edward (the psychic)

[olivermoss]

* Blood Trail by Tanya Huff - I will finish this series, but this entry was... odd

* I am almost through the Game Changers series by Rachael Reid. I started with book 2, Heated Rivalry, because it's getting a TV adaptation and now I am reading the whole thing. Series is good, but also very uneven. I'll post about all of them when I am done.

For now, I do have a post on Blood Trail and Heated Rivalry.

[apachefirecat]

Very glad to be able to join into this again! I've been working OT like crazy as one client at work ends and my career really starts to take off with another (and a government sub-contractor at that! :)) But I HAVE MISSED DW, and the tidbits of other books I get from posts such as these have been a highlight for months, even when I'm tired of fandom itself. :)

I've got two books I'm still trying to finish. One will have to wait until after the OT, as it requires a lot of Scripture reading to go along with it. This is Women of Easter, and goes back to a couple months before Easter. LOL BUT it is WELL worth the read!! I've just been unable to find time YET to complete the final chapter, the study guide... But I WILL get there!!

Also working on finishing What Got You Here Won't Get You There, which has been derailed by the OT as well but which I've got less than 50 pages left to, and I ended up starting a light read, a book by Trace Adkins, on my first night on the new client while I wait for access to finish kicking in... Lots to learn on the first, and Trace definitely has A LOT of ideas. Can't say I agree with them all, but he WILL make you think!

[white_aster]

I just finished The Devils by Joe Abercrombie (good, bloody fun, though I could have done without this AU just substituting "bloodthirsty cannibalistic elves" for Eastern peoples.)

Currently reading:

- Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes (so far, I'm about a third of the way through and things are both starting to get weird and starting to get frustrating because it's obvious I haven't yet been given enough background to figure out if the weirdness is deliberate or just wonky plotting.)

- Into the Broken Lands by Tanya Huff (started slow, and though it's picking up, it's starting to feel repetitive and I'm REALLY not looking forward to another 66% of the book with some of the characters - there's a few incredibly arrogant and entitled characters that I wish would just get eaten by monsters already, but know that at least the one won't be.)

- The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher (entertaining enough, though reading this at the same time as The Devils was really messing with me - totally different tones. Also I feel like in later books she realized, oh, wait, maybe leaning so hard on the "gnoles are like dogs" isn't a good look...? Because yeah, the gnole character being treated like a talking dog in this is not a good look.

[spiralsheep]

"I haven't yet been given enough background to figure out if the weirdness is deliberate or just wonky plotting"

Lol, yes, it can be very irritating when books do that for more than the first third (or whatever an individual writer can sustain).

[white_aster]

Lol, yeah. I came to Huff through her big military scifi series and eventually dropped off it because sometimes her writing just is hard for me to envision, and every now and then I read the in-book reasoning for why someone did something and go, "...that doesn't sound like the easiest way to deal with that at ALL". So, we'll see how this book goes.

[drawnecromancy]

Slightly late considering it's Thursday here, but oh well. I'm reading "Le Costume Français", a costume history book about how the french dress up. It feels like I'm revising for class and there aren't enough visual references for my liking, so I hope I'll be done with it fast, honestly. I'll probably jump back into reading fiction for a bit when I'm done with this.

[spiralsheep]

You could post the weekly booknook meme to ensure Europe is on time (Won't somebody think of the Antipodeans?!).... ;-P
::nudges::

I'm not rly into fashion but somebody made me look at Daniele Tamagni's book Fashion Tribes: Global Street Style and the photos are gorgeous (if it's not in a library near you then photosearching online will bring up some splendid images). If you need a brain-break from words about clothes but want to see more clothes (although the very short essays in the book are interesting too). :-)

[drawnecromancy]

That would be an idea, but considering I'm not on dreamwidth that often I would rather just be late LOL

Honestly I've learned some amount of costume history for class and have been using it exclusively to make my fantasy designs cooler, I don't know anything about modern fashion. That book sounds interesting and I'll see if I can find it at my local library ! :)

[thepasteldyke]

Aw too bad that there's not enough visuals, books about fashion really benefit from those. Costuming can be so interesting, same with fashion history in general, though I feel like I haven't read much of it in a while.

[drawnecromancy]

Yeah ! Especially considering it's apparently a reedition of older texts - texts that my costume history teacher has used in class, and those do include visuals ! So it's a... really weird choice, I think. And the little booklet in the middle with one illustration per era mentioned is just not enough considering the amount of things described :/

If you want I can probably dig in what I've read before to recommend you some books about costume history, I'm *almost* sure I have at least one or two with visuals that can be interesting :)

[spiralsheep]

I'm sure you both know this but for anyone else reading: wikipedia has increasing resources on the history of western European fashions which are easy to search by decade in addition to topic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fashion_by_decade

When you find something of interest then it's worth clicking through to wikisource for more related images too. :-)

[drawnecromancy]

I wasn't aware of that, actually ! That's going to be really useful. Thank you ~

[spiralsheep]

I got it slightly wrong and you need to click through to wikimedia commons (not wikisource), so for 1700-10:

By century:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fashion_by_century

By decade:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fashion_by_decade

Click through to 1700-1710 at wikimedia commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1700s_fashion

:-)

[drawnecromancy]

Ohh, right. Still good to know :) Thanks again!

[valoise]

A recently found an audiobook production of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books narrated by Indira Varma with additional voices by Bill Nighy and others. I started with Wee Free Men. This is absolutely delightful.

As part of my ongoing research on food and World War One I picked up a reprint copy of American Indian Corn (Maize): A Cheap and Wholesome Food" by Charles J. Murphy, edited by Jeannette Norton Young. Murphy worked at the Department of Agriculture in the late 19th century as an expert in corn and it's promotion internationally and it's obvious that he spent a lot of time studying the topic. In addition to recipes from New England and the South, he provides information about how native groups were better at processing the grain for better flavor and increased nutritive value. Those recipes, often more a narrative description than a precise recipe, come from Mexico and the Dakota, Hopi, Zuni, Western Apache and unnamed New England tribes.

[quillpunk]

i'm rereading Dragon Ascending by Aeraneth, a solo leveling fic that i adore. the worldbuilding just makes my brain brrrr. it's awesome. (also it's made want to reread solo leveling :D)