Reading Cold Days by Jim Butcher, the 14th book in Dresden Files series.
Another super busy week, so pretty much still at the same place as last week.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I’m currently reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Someone mentioned it in one of the threads here and to my surprise my library had it. It’s a really interesting story. I love how Le Guin is able to create a world that is so different yet feels like a real place.
The only issue I have is that it takes place on a planet aptly nicknamed Winter where it’s so cold all the time. And it’s been a really cold week here too, and reading about the freezing cold only makes me feel colder. If anyone knows any good books set in hot climates, I’m all ears.
just about to start this after finishing Children of Time (Tchaikovsky) tonight
Cool! Curious to know what you think about it 🙂
Just finished American Sirens, the story of the first paramedics in the US. Everyone should read this book. It should be made into a movie, ala Hidden Figures. It’s frustrating and fascinating and well written. You will be amazed at what they used to do before CPR was invented in the 60s.
sounds fascinating, I’ll add this to my TBR📚
Interesting, will look it up.
Thanks for the recommendation.
about 1/3 of the way through right now, and having been a lot more glued to ‘the dispossessed’ not even a week ago, this is a bit of a slog.
The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History - takes a look at a bunch of international context around the time. Quite interesting so far (but I’m only a few chapters in).
War for the Oaks - urban fantasy from 1987! The main character gets drafted by the fae to help them in a fae war. I’m also not very far into this one.
Dark gathering: Volume 1 (manga)
How are you liking it so far?
Enjoying it ☺️
This past week I finished reading “Transgender Marxism” by Jules Joanne Gleeson. I also read “The Abolition of Work” by Bob Black.
Currently getting perilously close to the end of Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer (the fourth and final book in his Southern Reach series).
I’m enjoying it, but it’s a trip. Every 100 pages or so my wife will ask how the book’s going, and I’ll respond “er, it’s gotten stranger…”.
I’m on my way through Revelation Space, current listening to Redemption Ark. It’s a great series for my daily commute!
Just read “Will of the Many” by James Islington. It was fantastic. Kind of an adult Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones but the world is more Roman influenced.
Basically an empire conquers the whole continent and they have a heirarchy system where 8 people give their will/strength/life force to those above. The people at higher levels have so much will coming in that they have telepathic abilities as well. Those at the bottom are half as stong as normal. Its a very interesting magic system.
Plot wise lots of twists and turns. Betrayals and redemptions, political backstabbing and plenty of mysteries to uncover.
I had a few gripes with the boy saviour trope and the lead character Vis being good at everything but not enough to kill an otherwise excellent story.
I don’t want to say anymore than that for fear of ruining it.
The sequel “Strength of the Few” just came out. I’m holding off reading it though because i know I’ll inhale it.
How many books is it going to be total? Don’t want to start another unfinished series, but the setting sounds interesting.
I think it started as a trilogy but he moved it to a quadrilogy because it would be too hard to wrap it up in 3.
Yeah if this fails to get completed I won’t be reading anymore unfinished series. I have faith though because he already completed one trilogy with a consistent release schedule.
Thanks for the info. I am willing to make exceptions for writers who are consistent and I enjoy. Will check it out.
The Widow by John Grisham
I picked up The Aeronaut’s Windlass again. It’s by Jim Butcher, who I have now learned also wrote the Dresden Files after reading this post! It’s a fun, cool read.
There’s almost two stories happening alongside each other. One about the cool, veteran ship captain trying to fix up his airship after the opening scene. The other about a group of young people almost out of the guards academy. I think I like all of them.
I really like the worldbuilding. Something happened to the surface of the Earth (I presume) and now humanity lives in a few giant spires, growing mana crystals to power airships to fly between them. On top of being a sucker for flying sailing ships (thanks Treasure Planet), I like how there isn’t really one exposition dump at any point about how the tech works, just context clues about why the current tech being discussed is relevant.
There are also people that talk to cats. It’s a little weird, but I like the cats enough to not be put off by it.
Conservation by Seth Ring. Despite its name it has nothing to do with politics. It is the 7th book in one of my favorite fantasy series.
I’m about 2/3 of the way through All Systems Red by Martha Wells, the first Murderbot story. I can see why it’s so well-liked.
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Finished:
Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi (historical fiction with elements of myth) | bingo: minority author, based on folklore, steppin’ up, political
A lowly blacksmith adjusts to her new life as the future bride of a powerful ruler.
According to the blurb, this is based on the myth of Persephone, but even clarifying that as “loosely” is generous. That said, outside of a couple of minor quibbles, I enjoyed this, and now I feel like I know a tiny bit about traditional West African culture. There is a brief glossary in the back, but I spent some time on Wikipedia, too.
Dead Cert by Dick Francis (mystery thriller) | bingo: different continent, motion picture, saddle up, game
A jockey investigates the death of his friend.
First in a series. Lots of horse racing, has that 1960s-era writing feel. This was decent, although the romance wasn’t great, and it hasn’t aged well in a couple of places (an understatement in one case).
I just did a relisten to the murderbot diaries recently. It’s funny, I know murderbot is explicitly not gendered, but I always pictured a female murderbot because I thought the front cover depicted a robot shaped coif that looked like a 50s typically female style. After they cast a male person for the TV show I was surprised and loked again, and I guess it’s just robot neck armor, not robot hair, lol.
I’m going to stick with my head cannon on this one though. Disillusioned asexual 50s housewife protector and professional ass kicker.
My headcanon Murderbot also leans toward the feminine, so you’re not alone. It would’ve been cool if the show had cast someone super androgynous (although I’m not surprised they didn’t).
For sure, androgynous would have been closer to what I think the text says.
When I did my second listen to Murderbot, it was after I read the Imperial Radch series. It’s interesting to compare Breq and Murderbot.
I adored the Murderbot diaries. You’re in for a treat :D
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223736225-we-the-people only started but so far so good
Still listening to Words of Radiance… it’s so long! Thanksgiving travel is providing several hours worth of listening time and I’m still only 3/5ths through it. My Libby loan is gonna run out on Sunday and I’m honestly not sure I’m gonna make it. I have and read a physical copy of The Way of Kings and while I rather like the narrators now that I’m used to them, I’m wondering if I’m just gonna have to continue with physical copies because I don’t do Audible and I can’t manage to get through a whole book in the three weeks or whatever that Libby gives me.
Also listening through Words of Radiance! Knew I’d never complete a rental through Libby so I went straight for a purchase on Libro. So it goes!
I love those books, what do you think of the story so far?
If you don’t do Audible because of Amazon, have you considered Libro.fm? The app isn’t quite on par and the library is smaller, but the company is a lot better, and Sanderson’s works are in there.
I’m enjoying it! I keep having to remind myself that the characters are pretty young because sometimes I picture them older and then they go and do something completely stupid (Kaladin, I’m looking at you right now) but it makes sense if you remember that they are either teenagers or just barely not teens.
I’m a cheapskate so I’m making do with Libby and occasionally also my actual library. If I really like a book, then I’ll consider purchasing a physical copy. I actually prefer reading physical books over audio, but I have so little time and so many other things I want to do that I had basically stopped reading entirely for a long time, and I was frustrated by that. About a year ago I decided that I was just going to force myself to make audiobooks work because I spend a lot of time in the car. Sometimes there isn’t an audio version, so I’ll check out the ebook version from Libby and have it on my phone, and it’s a really nice alternative to doomscrolling when I’m waiting in line or at the doctor’s office or something.
