RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[quillpunk]

Surely it's still Wednesday somewhere in the world, so... what are you reading? 👀

Comments

[alethiers]

I continued with the Apothecary Diaries Light Novel (first volume). And I'm plugging away at Game of Thrones.

Also need to continue Lute and The Devouring Wolf.

[senmut]

I hope you enjoy!

[senmut]

Two chapters into Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee.

When Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for her unconventional tactics, Kel Command gives her a chance to redeem herself, by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles from the heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake: if the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own.

As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao – because she might be his next victim.

First in The Machineries of Empire saga.

[white_aster]

:wiggles!: I really liked Ninefox Gambit more than I expected. I have a low tolerance for books so deep in their own vocabulary that they don't explain to you, but once I got far enough into Ninefox that I got the gist of it, just understanding what everyone was talking about threw everything in a different light, and I couldn't NOT see how it was going to turn out. :) I hope you like it!

[senmut]

I am very excited. While I know some of the plot points, I have had far less exposure to this one vicariously than some others I tried reading! So it's novel, it's a different setting from much of what I've read, it draws on FAR different cultural beats...

So yes, very much enjoying it so far, and already decided I need to get a copy. This is the library's e-book, which as slow as I go (a chapter at a time when I have mental bandwidth and energy) will likely have to be rechecked at least once.

[quillpunk]

Ooooh, yes I saw you've been reading this. I've stayed away from your posts about it to avoid spoilers (one day I'll read it *pumps fist*), but I hope you're having fun! :D

[white_aster]

What I just finished reading:
- Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi - good! solid African-inflected sci-fi. My problem with short story collections is that i often want a more fleshed-out story than the length allows, but this collection had some good, satisfying bits in it.

- Starter Villain by John Scalzi - I devoured this in two days. It sucked me in and did its banter and sarcastic eat-the-rich theme very well, and then kind of left me hanging. I just need to stop expecting Scalzi to nail the emotional beats. In the books of his I've read, emotion is never his strong suit or his point. Hoping that he'd take the complex quasi-familial emotion landscape he'd used as backdrop and actually RESOLVE any of it in a satisfactory manner was just expecting too much.

What I'm reading now: The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov. Back to the classic sci-fi grindstone. Already I've had to roll my eyes several times at the human detective main character doing something childish and doofy out of sheer pigheadedness. I wonder if he's SUPPOSED to come off that way? Or if this is just how Real Men were written Back In The Day?

What I'll be reading next: I already have A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher downloaded from the library. I'm not much of a horror reader anymore, but I liked Kingfisher's style in her Saint of Steel series, and a friend recced this to me, so we'll see. Like the Asimov, if I don't end up liking it...eh, it's short.

[senmut]

Oh thank you for the reminder! I never finished reading African Futurism which I was enjoying... several years ago? Huh. Well, I can grab it for my next book, even if it is an anthology.

[white_aster]

I read...I think it was Africa Risen?, another good anthology of stories, and it was good, too!

[quillpunk]

All those books sound very interesting! :D Starter Villain is something I've been debating trying to get my hands on, lol.

Good luck with your new reads!

[muccamukk]

Theoretically Glimmerings: Trans Elders Tell Their Stories, edited by Margot Wilson, but it's pretty slow going.

[senmut]

Interesting subject matter!

[muccamukk]

I'm taking a stab at Trans Rights Readathon, but seem to have run out of momentum once I also ran out of graphic novels, haha.

[quillpunk]

Absolutely fair. Hope you're having fun, though!

[quillpunk]

Good luck! :D (I've certainly been theoretically reading lots of things over the years. One day I'll finish them *pumps fist*)

[starfleetbrat]

I started reading In Search of the Lost World (Primordia #1) by Greig Beck which is meant to be an exciting adventure where a guy finds out his grandfather was best friends with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Doyle's book "the lost world" is actually based on the grandfather's actual adventure into the lost world complete with dinosaurs etc. The guy goes to find the lost world his grandfather found and some friends tag along.

In reality, its very slow so far and a bit.. ehh, not sure. I've skimmed ahead a little to see if I want to keep reading it and at chapter 20 (half way through the book) they still haven't arrived in the lost world yet so I dunno.. I think I will lose patience with it before then lol so it may end up a DNF.

[senmut]

Great concept, poor execution, sounds like it.

[jellyfishlover]

Currently half way through Kagerou Daze I -in a daze-, I've been having fun reading through it so far! It's very rule of cool-ish, which makes it a nice read before bed.

[kore]

I've been rereading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt for the first time in....over a decade maybe, jeez, and enjoying it much more this time around. It sure is stuffed full of her research notes though.

[svgurl]

I finished 'The Blonde Identity' by Ally Carter the other day and even though it had some cringey and annoying moments, it was overall fun and fasted paced. Now I've just started "The Idea of You" by Robinne Lee, the book that the upcoming Anne Hathaway movie is based off, where a 39 year old divorced woman meets and connects with a member of a boy band who is almost half her age. I was a little disappointed it was in first person POV, since I struggle with that, but otherwise, I'm not far enough along to have an opinion.

[olivermoss]

Lathe of Heaven. I've got it on Audiobook, but I might pick it up on Kindle instead.

[peaceful_sands]

I read that last year - it's an interesting concept and given when it was written very foresighted.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, I really need to finally read some Le Guin fiction instead of just non-fiction. The other other fiction I've read by her is Those Who Walk Away From Omelas, because it's basically required reading for a large chunk of the conversations I have online. I have the first Earthsea book, got it a while back, hope to get to that soon.

[quillpunk]

Earthsea is very good. One of these days I'm going to reread it *pumps fist* Good luck on your reading! :D

[olivermoss]

Thanks! I'm looking forward to it

[scifirenegade]

Right now I'm in and off reading these two non-fiction books:

- Gay Berlin by Robert Beachy. A history of the queer in Germany, since the mid-1800s. It's chock-full of info, and very interesting.

- Conrad Veidt's bio by Jerry C. Allen. There are no sources, only occasionally he says "Veidt's daughter told me" (nice that he fot to interview family members). But good heaves, he's very homophobic and full of "opinions". At least there's chocolate cake and dogs, but Veidt deserved better.

[quillpunk]

Sounds like interesting reads! Good luck! :D

[quillpunk]

Biggles Flies East by WE Johns, an adventure novel, You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky, a YA m/m romance, and I have in fact read another 20 pages or so on Children of Time! Woohoo!

[givemeyourhonor]

I'm currently reading Prince of the Sorrows by Kellen Graves. It definitely needed an editor or another editor at least. Some of the grammer is really rough and sometimes it's very poetic, but in a way that's a bit confusing sentence wise. But a hundred pages in and I'm enjoying the world building and I'm excited to see what happens.

There definietly are a vew scenes of violence that make me cringe though along with some scenes of abuse of the people abusing servants kind. But I'm having fun.

[quillpunk]

Oooh I have Prince of the Sorrows (but haven't read it yet). Glad you're enjoying it, even if it's a bit rough around the edges. Good luck! :D

[givemeyourhonor]

It's a lot of un so far and I'm still guessing a few mysteries that have cropped up and I'm liking the relationship development so far.

[peaceful_sands]

Before I launch into the 'what I'm reading' I just wanted to say how interesting it is to find new titles and recommendations by reading about other people's current books - so many interesting things out there, if only there were more time!

As for me, this week I've finished 'A Good Girl's Guide To Murder' and literally less than five minutes ago, 'The Bookbinder of Jericho'. The first is a YA book with the main female character seeking to find out what really happened in a five year old murder for a school project - it touched on quite a few other interesting topics - social media, bullying, image pressures, victims of crime, the effects of crime/media/pressure on families of reputed criminals. The second book follows the life of a young woman who is working in a bookbinders during the First World War and how she, her family and friends are effected by the times and the changes in their lives.

Still reading 'Cloud Runners' and 'Dragon Class'. My next audio book will probably be 'Firefight' by Brandon Sanderson although I also have 'The Mystery of Four' by Sam Blake to listen to from the library. We've got a long weekend here for Easter and the weather is looking horrendous, so I might get a bit of time to craft and listen and catch up a bit of my reading.

[quillpunk]

So many people are reading so many interesting things and I'm just like... 'but... I have a finite amount of reading time... oh no' Glad you're having fun! Good luck with your reads! :D

[peaceful_sands]

I know exactly what you mean - there just isn't enough time or energy to do ALL the reading.