Books

Now reading "Newton's wake" by Ken MacLeod. Haven't read too much of it yet, but so far so good. I was previously reading "an inside job" by Daniel Silva, but I put it away. Like I mentioned last week, this series has always been very Israel-centered, but the last two books Silva is clearly ignoring the elephant in the room. He does so by pointing at several European countries. Once I noticed it while reading it, I also noticed the story was severely lacking in depth because of it, characters are very one dimensional and sometimes do very weird things just to get a plot twist going.

I'm currently reading Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende. I read some books by her years ago, which I loved, so when I saw this one in a tiny library, I had to take it. I'm not far in yet, but it's a great read so far.

I finished both Murder on the Orient Express and Murder on the River Nile by Agatha Christie. They were both fun and well-written, but I don't think detectives are my cup of tea. I may read some more of her work if it's snowing and I'm in front of a fireplace or something. They're cozy to read, even with all the murders taking place.

https://shop.craphound.com/

If there is another book that's more aligned with fediverse values, I'm not sure what that is.

This may not qualify as currently reading - however I just finished Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre yesterday. Fantastic and difficult (emotionally) read. Really connects the dots and gives an inside look into Epstein’s world as well as an incredible story of survival and self-empowerment.

I’m also re-reading 1984 by George Orwell. I read it for the first time ~15 years ago and it terrified me, now it’s terrifying in a whole new way.

Gonna need a lighthearted read after this.

The Faith of Beasts!! Just showed up on my doorstep.

It’s book 2 of The Captives War from James S.A. Corey, same author(s) as The Expanse. One is George R.R Martins understudy.

It’ll help keep my mind off my mothers death.

Reading: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Listening to: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Reading "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen ! I'm going through everything she's written, I finished Pride & Prejudice a few weeks ago and I just got this one !

Bit of a slow year for me, but currently reading Eric by Terry Pratchett.

Currently rereading the "Children of Time"-Series by Adrian Tchaikovsky because the fourth book was just released and I really like to experience the first three again.

I'm a sucker for good Sciency Science Fiction and this series ticks practically all boxes of my special interests.

Also listening to the Warhammer 40k Series "Ciaphas Cain" by Sandy Mitchell, because it's funny and relaxing.

Also listening to "Sourcery" by Terry Pratchett on my way through the Discworld Series (again)

I'm reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and listening to the complete Sherlock Holmes (I have no idea what's going on in the latter, I keep falling asleep).

I hope you find the time to read soon, OP.

I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I think I read this for school a long time ago. Good book.

I'm reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This covers my last bingo square: Cozy. I'm still early on but I'm really enjoying it so far. It's fun, not too serious, and exactly what I need right now.

I finished There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm last night. While the science fiction was cool, I had some difficulty because the timelines appeared to be jumping around. I guess it was thematic in the sense that our memories are/were incomplete similar to how a character might experience them in-story. I don’t read a whole lot of cosmic horror stuff, so the grandness of some of the descriptions felt different as though I were watching someone else play Shadow of the Colossus.

I’ve had 1Q84, Book 3 sitting on my desk begging and taunting me to finish it, so I might just get to that once and for all.

Just finished re-reading A Clash of Kings by G.R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire 2). It's a very cool book, but I didn't find it quite as consistently gripping as the first one. The first just has such incredible pacing imo.

Next one up is Caliban's War by James Corey (The Expanse 2). I have seen the TV show, and really liked the first book as well.

Recently got to intermediate level with studying Japanese myself for fun, so I've been reading 「魔女の宅急便」aka Kiki's Delivery Service the original 1985 novel.

It's SOOO adorable OMG!!!

I decided it is time to go through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This will be the sixth time for me. It is the best of the best.

I recently finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I have never had such a rocky reading experience. Over all I enjoyed it but it was a very mixed bag. Some of the books were just okay, one or two were excellent, and at least one was truly terrible.

When the Moon Hits Your Eye - John Scalzi

Thr Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett

And re-listening through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series in anticipation of the new book releasing May 12

Currently reading five books:

1. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (it’s basically Real Housewives of Regency London. Loving it!)
2. The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Wells (grimdark steampunk!)
3. The World is Full of Divorced Women by Jackie Collins (racy 70s chick lit)
4. Blue Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu (a blue boy in Tamil Nadu, India is believed to be the reincarnation of a Hindu god)
5. Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison (freedom only for the rich while the rest of us are oppressed, surveilled, and exploited)

Stardust!

I love this book. Very unfortunate about the writer being a shit.

Birthright in the Impavidus Cycle trilogy by M A Vice. I'm a few chapters in and so far its mostly just the tragedy of a serial killer born into that role and getting headpats by his dad for murdering real good, and not having any meaningful contact with anyone else or any frame of reference for what he's doing. It reminds me of hanging with my racist family in a sad kinda way.

To catch a fascist by Christopher Mathias

Oh no, more time without reading for you :(

I'm still working my way through "The Remaining" books. I finished book 4 yesterday and then did the two nouvellas today that sit in the middle, then straight away started book 5.

To begin with I enjoyed it but thought it was a bit mid, I didn't really like the hooraaa, US of A patriots vibe that I thought was going to be a lot more prominent throughout to begin with. Thankfully as it has gone on it hasn't been too heavy with that shit, a little bit of flag worship or how this country used to be so great bits here and there but I have found that it is easy to ignore and the story going on has been worthwhile to ignore that stuff.

I think I realised I was enjoying it more than I thought i was when I got a bit choked up at the scene where his dog was trapped up on the roof of a building and he was struggling through bouts of unconsciousness trying to get back to the dog and I really felt the emotion in that. And I'm a cat person!

So yeh, looking forward to continuing these books!

Just finished Perdido Street Station and China Mieville had moved into one of my favorite contemporary authors positions.

So good.

Reading "Venomous Lumpsucker" by Ned Beauman. I'm about 50% through and I like it.

I'm re-reading the Incarnations of Immortality septology by Piers Anthony. I read them originally as they came out, and I remembered having enjoyed them quite a lot. Upon a re-read, they're not as good as I remembered though certainly not bad. They're also quite a bit more dated than I recalled, but I suppose they weren't at the time of their release. Also IoI is one of Anthony's series with the least amount of his weirdness in it, but it's definitely there.

I also learned that he released the eighth novel in the series in 2007, but reviews are not encouraging so I'll be skipping that one.

I'm reading Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. Nearly done with the series. I'm enjoying how the books jump around in time, space, and genre while all living in a basic rule space. Kind of like a less scattered Cosmere.