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Wow, it's the last day in January. How is time even.
What I Finished Reading This Week
The Worst Woman in London — Julia Bennett
Four stars WILL READ AGAIN. This is a Victorian romance whose characters actually sound like they exist in the Victorian era, even as they confront social issues that will resonate with 21st century readers. The first 41 percent of the book was an entertaining read; after that it hooked me and did not let me go. The exploration of social issues is on point. The drama is intense and its outcomes not predictable. The humor is laugh-inducing. The relationships between female characters are fascinating, believable, and also unpredictable. The sex scenes are hot. Yes. This is what I want out of a het historical romance novel. Again, four stars. Once I get my TBR ratio down to *mumblemumble* I will absolutely be buying Bennett's other books.
The Women Could Fly — Megan Giddings
As I mentioned last week, I have such mixed thoughts about this book. In short, it is an amazing book that I was just not in the right headspace to read at this time (i.e., the mixed thoughts are a me problem). For those unfamiliar with the title, The Women Could Fly is set in a different branch of the multiverse where witchcraft is real and our timeline's socioeconomic structures have evolved to accommodate that reality. And holy shit, Gidding's presentation of this reality does. Not. Take. Prisoners.
Her descriptive language is beautiful: sentences that will stop you in your tracks. Her descriptions of Michigan are pure Michigan, and made me nostalgic for it. And holy crap, when it comes to showing how social structures that make certain categories of people dependent on other categories of people for their very existence rot genuine human interaction from the inside...again, Giddings does not take prisoners. Nor does she shy away from showing how this divorces individuals from their own experiences. TL;DR — The words I'd use to describe this book are "clear-sighted" and "uncompromising", and it delivers on those counts in spades.
[Title] — [Author]
For reasons.
What I'm Currently Reading
Carmina Gadelica vol. 1 — Alexander Carmichael
This is so much fun to read, I love reading the Gàidhlig, and it's quite pleasing to see how much my reading comprehension has progressed in the last few years, as well.
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherworlds — Heather Fawcett
You guys, I am so stoked that this book finally came out. I am eating it up.
Raghavan Iyer — On the Curry Trail
I started reading this one this afternoon and it's still early days.
Ancillary Sword — Ann Leckie
I'm slowballing this one because I don't want the main trilogy to end.
The Last Good Man — Linda Nagata
Because I wanted something that would touch on the same themes as Imperial Radch, thus scratching that itch while letting me read said series more slowly.
Elder Race — Adrian Tchaikovsky
Slowballing this one too, because so far the concept is intriguing and the language is just beautiful.
How Computers Work — Ron White & Timothy Edward Downs
Some of the sections on hardware-software interactions are still impenetrable to me no matter how many times I reread them, but even still, it's an amazingly informative and well-written book.
Ghost Music — An Yu
The story is gripping and the language is beautiful. I started reading this one yesterday and will absolutely finish it tonight.
What I'm Reading Next
This week I picked up copies of Abi Balingit's Mayumu, Boye Lafayette De Mente & Patrick Wallace's Etiquette Guide to China, Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherworlds, Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, Raghavan Iyer's On the Curry Trail, Wei Li (ed.)'s China's Evolving Policy Processes under the Comparative Lenses, Linda Nagata's The Last Good Man, [Author]'s [Title], An Yu's Ghost Music, and pre-ordered Melissa Albert's The Bad Ones, which I am so fucking excited about.
これで以上です。
What I Finished Reading This Week
The Worst Woman in London — Julia Bennett
Four stars WILL READ AGAIN. This is a Victorian romance whose characters actually sound like they exist in the Victorian era, even as they confront social issues that will resonate with 21st century readers. The first 41 percent of the book was an entertaining read; after that it hooked me and did not let me go. The exploration of social issues is on point. The drama is intense and its outcomes not predictable. The humor is laugh-inducing. The relationships between female characters are fascinating, believable, and also unpredictable. The sex scenes are hot. Yes. This is what I want out of a het historical romance novel. Again, four stars. Once I get my TBR ratio down to *mumblemumble* I will absolutely be buying Bennett's other books.
The Women Could Fly — Megan Giddings
As I mentioned last week, I have such mixed thoughts about this book. In short, it is an amazing book that I was just not in the right headspace to read at this time (i.e., the mixed thoughts are a me problem). For those unfamiliar with the title, The Women Could Fly is set in a different branch of the multiverse where witchcraft is real and our timeline's socioeconomic structures have evolved to accommodate that reality. And holy shit, Gidding's presentation of this reality does. Not. Take. Prisoners.
Her descriptive language is beautiful: sentences that will stop you in your tracks. Her descriptions of Michigan are pure Michigan, and made me nostalgic for it. And holy crap, when it comes to showing how social structures that make certain categories of people dependent on other categories of people for their very existence rot genuine human interaction from the inside...again, Giddings does not take prisoners. Nor does she shy away from showing how this divorces individuals from their own experiences. TL;DR — The words I'd use to describe this book are "clear-sighted" and "uncompromising", and it delivers on those counts in spades.
[Title] — [Author]
For reasons.
What I'm Currently Reading
Carmina Gadelica vol. 1 — Alexander Carmichael
This is so much fun to read, I love reading the Gàidhlig, and it's quite pleasing to see how much my reading comprehension has progressed in the last few years, as well.
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherworlds — Heather Fawcett
You guys, I am so stoked that this book finally came out. I am eating it up.
Raghavan Iyer — On the Curry Trail
I started reading this one this afternoon and it's still early days.
Ancillary Sword — Ann Leckie
I'm slowballing this one because I don't want the main trilogy to end.
The Last Good Man — Linda Nagata
Because I wanted something that would touch on the same themes as Imperial Radch, thus scratching that itch while letting me read said series more slowly.
Elder Race — Adrian Tchaikovsky
Slowballing this one too, because so far the concept is intriguing and the language is just beautiful.
How Computers Work — Ron White & Timothy Edward Downs
Some of the sections on hardware-software interactions are still impenetrable to me no matter how many times I reread them, but even still, it's an amazingly informative and well-written book.
Ghost Music — An Yu
The story is gripping and the language is beautiful. I started reading this one yesterday and will absolutely finish it tonight.
What I'm Reading Next
This week I picked up copies of Abi Balingit's Mayumu, Boye Lafayette De Mente & Patrick Wallace's Etiquette Guide to China, Heather Fawcett's Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherworlds, Matt Haig's The Midnight Library, Raghavan Iyer's On the Curry Trail, Wei Li (ed.)'s China's Evolving Policy Processes under the Comparative Lenses, Linda Nagata's The Last Good Man, [Author]'s [Title], An Yu's Ghost Music, and pre-ordered Melissa Albert's The Bad Ones, which I am so fucking excited about.
これで以上です。
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