I still can‘t decide which fiction flavour I feel like, so I started my Friday with another chunk of ALL OF THE MARVELS. I‘m up to the bit where Wolk discusses his experience with Hickman‘s Avengers, which I‘ve read and found very cool, and his enthusiasm‘s bringing it all back for me.
Breakfast with Ruth Ozeki. I‘m not entirely sure I‘m in the right mood for her, but I‘ll give it a go anyways. If the book and I don‘t click, I can always return it and try again a couple months down the line.
November stats. Look at that TBR reduction!!!!! I‘m gonna knock those two books off in December and start 2022 without anything hanging over me.
It wasn‘t a spectacularly memorable month, aside from the TBR milestone, but I did find a 5-star read (tagged) and a 4.5er (PRINCE LESTAT by Anne Rice). Good times.
I woke up hungry and decided to break my date omelet recipe out of hibernation. It paired well with the start of my first holiday read of 2021.
pickPRINCE LESTAT has such a low Litsy rating that I went in with tons of trepidation and was all the more delighted when I loved the hell out of it. Rice takes a series of deep dives into characters who floated along the periphery of the main cast‘s stories. Many of them never even got names before. Now we know who they are, what they want, and how they react to this current crisis. It‘s exactly my jam. I‘m so glad I read it ahead of schedule.
Some authors write books I never want to shut up about. Others write books that carry me along so thoroughly I never want to discuss my response. I only want to tell others to read them so they can experience the sensation too, with as little outside input as possible.
Kim Thúy‘s like that. You should read her. She‘s worth it.
(I‘m sure she‘s also infinitely discussable, if she hits you that way.)
This book makes so many cogent points that it‘s easier for me to just tell you to read it than to quote ‘em all, but I‘ve got to share this one because it‘s important. It sets my teeth on edge when I see people talk about the “illustrations” in the comics they read. “Art” (or “artwork” if you wanna be fancy) is more appropriate when you discuss comics, AND it uses up less of the character limit on social media platforms where that‘s an issue.
I planned to leave PRINCE LESTAT on La TBR until I finished my slow-ass Vampire Chronicles reread, but I‘m in the mood for some Anne Rice I‘ve never read before, and hey, I‘ve got an obvious craving-buster on hand. And I mean, if I still remember THE TALE OF THE BODY THIEF super well sixteen years after I last read it, it‘s not like I‘ve gotta worry about feeling lost.
Today‘s excellent library haul. I‘m especially excited for the tagged book, which I requested after Jay & Miles talked to the author, but this‘s a pretty great bunch all around. I‘m glad to have new(ish) stuff from Ruth Ozeki, Jordan Ifueko, and Kim Thúy, I‘ve anticipated Jesse Wente‘s story for a long time, I‘m hoping to find some recipes for Sinterklaas, and I couldn‘t resist grabbing a Christmassy Jenny Colgan off the shelf.
1. I‘m on track to finish LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS tomorrow! Maybe I didn‘t love these books the way I expected to, but I‘ve enjoyed them a lot. I‘m glad I finally read them.
2. This Roasted Marshmallow Lager was too weird to leave at the store. Luckily, it was also delicious. I guess I DO like the occasional sweet beer.
This week‘s goal: finish the First Law Trilogy. I wasn‘t sure I felt like reading Joe Abercrombie right after I finished something by K.J. Parker, but I‘m 50 pages in after my breakfast session and I‘m really feeling it.
I baked roasted garlic & dill challah while I learned about fungi. This book is fascinating so far. #audiobaking
I got my #NewYearWhoDis list last night, and I‘m SO READY to go all in on @Laughterhp ‘s picks! I‘ve already read one (BLACK SUN by Rebecca Roanhorse), but the others are all new to me AND available at my library. I had a lot of fun this morning requesting the ones with holds lists (and suspending those holds so I don‘t get the books until January). Now I‘ve just gotta resist immediately nabbing the ones that‘re checked in…
Time for some K.J. Parker! I‘ve sat on this one for a looooooong time because I haven‘t been able to find the last book in the trilogy. I almost bought it used once, but I decided to come back the next day with some books to trade. By that time, it was gone. Poop. If I get invested enough in the first two, I guess I‘ll have to buy #3 new.
I ate sausage & barley soup while I started COLOURS IN THE STEEL. It looks like nothing but it‘s delicious.
I just read the first chapter of PLAYING HOUSE, the first novella in Ruby Lang‘s Uptown Collection, and I‘ve got a really good feeling about it.
The Megan Lindholm novel I started earlier today had such purple prose I couldn‘t even stand to read three full chapters. Sigh. I‘ve switched to OUT OF CHARACTER, which is off to a very good start.
Library haul! Two of my In Transit holds didn‘t arrive before I did, so I nabbed Ruby Lang‘s real estate romance trilogy off the shelf to go with the Annabeth Albert novel I had waiting for me. I also got vols 4 and 5 of HONEY AND CLOVER in the (perhaps vain) hope the person who‘s got vol 3 returns it nice and soon.
Another 4am wake-up means more reading time, I guess? (Also, even poorer lighting than I usually get at breakfast.)
I had an ARC of GRUDGING back in the day, but it was through Edelweiss and the site refused to let me download it. I felt bad and bought it during a $0.99 sale, then left it unread for years because Past Me was bad at reading stuff in a timely fashion.
It‘s the last ebook on La TBR. I‘m so, so close to conquering this thing.
pickIn other hands, RING could‘ve been a flat, distanced meditation on human interactions and the role magic (real or metaphorical) can play in people‘s lives. André Alexis makes it a story to fully inhabit. I couldn‘t look away from Gwen‘s perspective, desperate to drink in her every observation on the people in her life and the things she experiences alongside them. It‘s bloody magnificent. I could yammer on about it for HOURS. 5 stars.
I started RING yesterday and didn‘t willingly put it down until I was too tired to carry on. It‘s got all André Alexis‘s usual gripping elegance, and now I‘m at the part with the ring it‘s pretty unsettling to boot. I can‘t wait to wallow in it today.
I do wish I hadn‘t read the rest of the books in this Quincunx so far apart. I‘ve spotted plenty of references to the other four, but I know I‘ve missed a lot more.
Who woke up at 4:30 and couldn‘t fall back asleep? Me!
Who started to like this book because of the cool friendships, but now wonders HOW there‘re still over a hundred pages left? Also me!
Seriously, y‘all. I like Kate‘s friend-group, but the stereotypes are intense and I don‘t care how the crush turns out and maybe it‘s the lack of sleep talking but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why this story requires 387 pages instead of, like, 263.
That pile of white is my front walk. Never talk to me about how much you love winter.
So, I started KATE IN WAITING last night, and it immediately ran up against my current low tolerance for American high school stories. Blah. It‘s tough to say whether my great love of the theatre will carry me through the USian tendency to reduce stuff to stereotypes (there‘s a BIG anti-jock vibe here) and those nicknames for grades that grate on me like whoa.
pickThis was an excellent way to spend a gloomy day. Justina Ireland never shies away from the terrible things her Black characters deal with in 1920s Pittsburgh, but there‘s also a lot of hope here as Ophie searches for ways to help the ghosts she encounters. I loved her and wanted so much on her behalf.
I also solved the mystery way ahead of her, but as per usual I‘m not sure whether it was obvious or I‘m just THAT GOOD at guessing.
It‘s a middle grade breakfast on this dismal morning. Whenever I read MG, I imagine how I‘d feel about it if I were the target audience. Adult Me likes OPHIE‘S GHOSTS a lot as of page 80, but I think Kid Me would‘ve been totally glued to it.
This gem arrived right before the Readathon, and I forgot to share it in all the excitement! Some time back, @BkClubCare announced she had these postcards and asked which bird was my favourite.
“The bird with the foulest mouth,” I said.
She did me one better and sent me the RUDEST foul-mouthed bird! I love it! 😍
The novellas are another reason I‘ve let my last few F&SF back issues languish unread for so long. The digital edition is organized by length, and it can be pretty durned daunting when you open a casual read and discover the first story is 295 screens long. I‘m between novels right now, though, so I finally dove into the May/June 2014 novella (“Bartleby the Scavenger” by Katie Boyer). It‘s pretty good so far, with about 100 screens to go.
I‘m still not wild about every bit of ACOSF, but I‘m super emotional about Nesta‘s progress and her friendships. There‘ve been TEARS, friends.
Two of the things I dislike:
It‘s CREEPY how SJM uses female and male instead of woman and man. I get she‘s being ACCURATE since they aren‘t human, but sometimes not being creepy is more important than accuracy.
She‘s totally addicted to the word “savour.” Poop.
Audible gave me a free copy of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” ages and ages ago, and I finally listened to it today on the first chunk of a good, long #audiowalk. The story was just okay, which I expected from my previous attempts to read it, but the walk was great. I went 6.25 miles, drank a free coffee, bought cheap butter, and found a ninjabread person cookie cutter at the thrift store! Whee!
I‘m limping along through ACOSF, partly because it‘s so dammed awkward to hold (hardcovers; UGH) and partly because I‘m divided on the story. I‘m invested in Nesta‘s emotional journey, but I don‘t care about the romance or the quest for the Stupendous and Magical Thingies. That‘s made it tough to sit down with it—and, as per usual, I‘m enjoying its good bits less because of this slower pace. Blah. I might take a break.
I liked the first volume of HONEY AND CLOVER just fine, but this second one has hooked me! It‘s a great portrait of a friend group at art school in Tokyo. Don‘t let the jacket copy fool you; the love triangles it touts are super low-key. This is way more about friendship than romance.
Another dark morning means another poorly-lit breakfast with my second-to-last digital freebie. I‘m 25% in and I dunno whether I‘ll take a break from it or just drift away. It‘s probably not a bad book, but it hasn‘t gripped me. That‘s typical of the stuff I got from Night Shade Books way back when, so I think their editor(s?) and I have pretty different taste.
I passed page 800 on today‘s clear, windy #audiowalk. The end is nigh! (Well, nigh-ish.)
I‘m excited I‘m now at the part where Egwene‘s badassery really kicks in. The stuff she does from here on out is why she‘s one of my faves.
panI had a lot of fun with Abby Collette‘s first ice cream parlour mystery, but this one felt choppy and random. At first, it struck me as something that‘d land better for me on screen than on page, but the randomness eventually ramped up so high I‘m not sure even the film treatment would‘ve worked for me.
I‘ll read Collette‘s next book as a tie breaker, but I‘ll start it with plenty of trepidation.
It‘s a good day for savoury porridge and a cozy mystery, with ice cream to follow this evening. Can‘t read a book about an ice cream shop without eating some.
Stats time! After a longish drought, October gave me a couple of new-to-me 5-star reads: the tagged book and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL 27 by Hiromu Arakawa. Hurray!
I also reread one of my ultimate faves (CORAMBIS by Sarah Monette) and found 3 4.5-star reads: FMA Vols 25 & 26 and THE BRIDE TEST by Helen Hoang.
Oh, and I hit my TBR reduction stretch goal like it was no big deal.
October was a pretty good month for books.
We tried for costumed walkies today, but Casey‘s shark outfit didn‘t play well with his harness. Oh well.
Between walkies, sewing, and Candy Crush, I‘m now halfway through my LORD OF CHAOS reread! I‘m enjoying it a lot, but I‘ve REALLY noticed all the unnecessary repetition this time around.
Yesterday I ate my mum‘s Hungarian mushroom soup and started THE CLOUD ROADS. It‘s lingered on La TBR for years because Martha Wells is kind of hit-or-miss for me, but I‘m really enjoying it. Whew. I‘ve got a bunch of trusted people who love this series and I always feel a bit like I‘ve let the team down when I‘m not into their recs.
I rolled out a substantial number of hand pie crusts while I listened to LORD OF CHAOS. Most of them are now beef & bacon pies, but I did experiment with Montreal smoked meat & mustard in one of them. It was delish.
The reread‘s going well, too, and I‘m glad the narrators have started pronouncing Moghedien‘s name more or less the way I do. I‘ve always called her Mo-gideon (#somanygideons) but they said Mo-gih-dean throughout FoH. #audiocooking
I took a wee break from THE BLOODLINE FEUD once I got the end of what used to be the first book. (This is supposedly a revised mash-up of two shorter books, but there‘s enough recap at the start of what used to be Book Two that I dunno how much revision actually occurred.) Now I‘m back in and excited to finish it. It‘s a cool blend of portal fantasy and social SF with an emphasis on economics.
Library haul! I‘m especially excited for the tagged book. I loved Justina Ireland‘s YA novels.
My heart‘s still all full of FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, and I‘ve gotta share the Al Funko Pop with you because he‘s just so gosh-durned cute.
OF COURSE I had to tear right on through to the end.
What a great series. I cried. Hell, I‘m still crying a little bit.
Today I accepted that FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST is never gonna go on sale. I shelled out a full $9 for Vol 26, even though that‘s a LOT more than I normally pay for manga and WHY is it so expensive when Hiromu Arakawa must already have GOBS OF MONEY from adaptations and games and merchandizing. Sigh.
(Y‘all know I‘ll also eventually give her money for Ed and Al Funko Pops, because HOW CUTE ARE THEY??? Especially Al.) #LaTBRrevealed
I finished vol 1 of HONEY AND CLOVER over breakfast, with the usual amount of help from my lazy dog. I found Chica Umino‘s style pretty busy and I‘m not totally hooked yet, but I‘ll give it at least one more volume.
I had SUCH a good (if unphotogenic) supper, y‘all: tofu steaks topped with everything oil on a bed of braised chard, with roasted asparagus on the side. Put that together with a great book and I‘m a happy diner.
Okay, I‘m awake again.
1. Really good. I got through most of my library pile and a bit more besides, and I logged 12 hours of reading time!
2. I went in with loose goals this time.
3. Cheese popcorn!
4. I feel like I stacked a couple things, but I don‘t remember if they were from Readathon participants.
5. I loved revisiting the tagged book for the first time since I was 11! It‘s gonna stay in my permanent collection.
#deweyoct #readathon
I put THE BLOODLINE FEUD aside for the Readathon because I still had 2/3 left and I didn‘t think I‘d want to binge it—then the two long chapters I read right at the end of the event set up some TOTALLY BINGEWORTHY developments.
Guess I know what I‘m doing tomorrow.
Tonight, I‘m at just over 12 hours of reading time for my 27th Readathon. I can live with that. I‘m gonna try to sleep. #deweyoct #readathon
Well, I had to cancel my usual midnight sausages because it‘s a pain day and things got pretty bad this evening and I had to take to my bed for a while. Standing at the stove didn‘t seem like a great option after that.
I finished MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN, though, and I tore through vol 3 of FENCE! This was my favourite one yet. It took me to 10:36. #deweyoct #readathon
