What Am I Reading Wednesday - September 27

Six weeks since my last WAIRW post, eh? The end of the fiscal year is a brutal, brutal time, ya'll.

What I Just Finished Reading

Norse Gods – Neil Gaiman
“It was good,” she says cautiously. “And the dust jacket has that nice, fuzzy-smooth feel that Pulley's Watchmaker has, which I enjoy.”

The thing is, any half-decent fanficcer could have written this, but Gaiman's name on the spine is the only reason it got the fuzzy-smooth dust jacket, or a dust jacket, or a hardback edition, or published at all, and I just can't separate awareness of that from my experience of reading the book.


What I Am Currently Reading

Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler
I passed on this library book club read last year because Butler truly realized the horror of what human beings do to each other, and that true horror conveys this by suggestion, not loving description, and it was hard going. But having found an UncensoredDC copy, I figured it was time to give it another try. I'm halfway through, and although I do have to put it down in places, I'm really enjoying it.

Monstress vol. 2 – Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
What a great series. I love Liu's worldbuilding. I love her protagonist. I melt over Kippa. And Takeda's art, with its references to Naono Bohra and Arakawa Hiromu, is just stunning. It takes me forever to read even a single issue, because I spend so much time drinking in each page.

The Last Days of New Paris – China Mieville
Fifteen pages in, it's already wonderfully weird. That said, this is perhaps not the best novel to tackle right before going to bed.


What I'm Reading Next
I'm eager to get started on Paul La Farge's The Night Ocean and Choo Wai Hong's The Kingdom of Women is also at the top of the list.

これで以上です。