What Am I Reading Wednesday: January 15

*Sigh* It's the first day of the third week of January, and like clockwork I am getting stuck late at work, which extends my commute, which pushes back everything else I had intended to do once I got home (groceries, cooking dinner, cleaning, random adulting, Snowflake, reading, exercise, GYWO, and on and on).

I'll get to all of this in the next few days (nevertheless, she will persist!). Ahead of that, here's what I read over the last week, to whit:

What I Finished Reading This Week

The Naming of the Birds – Pariac O’Donnell
What a fabulous book. O'Donnell has penned an excellent mystery with gripping action and atmospheric scene setting, as well as the return of some much beloved characters. I won't spoil anything else here, but I'm pleased to say that The Naming of the Birds is as good as the preceding volume without merely retreading the preceding volume. This one is a definite recommend.

The Forgotten Kingdom – Signe Pike
Sigh. I wanted to like this so much more than I did. ( The good and the bad. )

There are part of this series I really like (the attention to place, descriptive scene-setting, and atmosphere; Pike's love of the source material, enthusiasm for the era, and desire to center powerful female characters in the narrative) but the characters' anachronistically modern attitudes don't work for me at all. I don't plan to read the third book.


What I Am Currently Reading

The Hacker and the State – Ben Buchanan
I'm only supposed to be reading a chapter a day from this book, but it's so cleanly and engagingly written I'm reading far more.

Kindling the Celtic Spirit – Mara Freeman
I finished the chapter on January this week.

A Sorceress Comes To Call - T. Kingfisher
So far, I’m really enjoying this book.

The Silver Bough vol. 2 – F. Marian McNeill
I finished this book’s chapter on January this week too.

The Old Guard vol. 2 – Greg Rucka, Leandro Fernandez, et al.
So far, I’m enjoying this volume as much as its predecessor.

Ansuz – Malene Sølvsten
The rule is that I can read two chapters from this book a day. I want to read so much more than that. It’s good.

I Am Morgan Le Fay – Nancy Springer
I’ll probably have finished this one by next week; so far it’s very good.


What I’m Reading Next

This week I acquired but quickly jettisoned Bill Browder’s Red Notice (having recently finished Red Roulette, I've had enough of male Lords of Capital explaining how even their turds are filled with good intentions while the other guys are all operators in it for the ego, power, and greed.)

I acquired and kept Bruce Dickson’s The Party and the People, Natasha Pulley’s The Mars House, and Lilith Saintcrow’s Coyote Run ("It's a good day to fight fascism," said the mailer it arrived in, "Let's read a book." And yes, this is much more my speed.)

これで以上です。