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valkryorAnother year, another list. If nothing else, it helps to keep track of what I've read and if I had any thoughts on it. I'm also trying to read more this year than I did last year.
Let's do it!
January:
February:
March:
April:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:
January 5 - What can I say? When a book's blurb mentions both Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash and Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, I'm going to be making grabby hands. I picked it up recently and started it yesterday. It feels very dense, and I'm curious where it's going to go from here.
January 18 - While I enjoyed Battle of the Linguist Mages while I was reading it, it hasn't made much of an immediate impact. Maybe it's a disconnect. Or maybe it's that I'm old enough to not be the 'target' audience. Or maybe I would have been more satisfied by putting it down midway through and reading something else, getting back to it at some unspecified time. I dunno.
Enjoyable in the moment, but nothing that lingers, be it character, concept, or plot.
So I started a Regency written by Mary Balogh and it's what it says on the tin. The characters are lovely. The respective families do the right amount of meddling. The leads are only four years apart, very understanding, and emotionally mature. It's warm and fuzzy with very little conflict or angst. Hot tea on a cold day. Or napping in the afternoon sun when you don't feel well.
January 20 - I seem to be picking books that are great in the moment, but do not stick beyond, "hey, I read that." This one is no exception, and I'm a little bummed. Ah, well. I have lots to choose from and lots that will break from this bland box I've found myself in. The books aren't BLAND, per se, so maybe it's me? I dunno. Onward, et cetera.
January 22 - I'm not entirely sure why I started reading Oedipus Aroused, but here we are. Although considering that I (with two other classmates in an university Sophocles translation course) had the mad idea to rewrite the Oidipous Tyrannos as an Aristophanic comedy (it writes itself!) leaving the chorus parts untouched and serious, this tracks. It's a fever dream, unapologetic and dripping with jizz. It's also the perfect antidote to that mess of a Achilles re-imagining I hate read last year.
January 30 - I spent yesterday reading a new-to-me Terry Pratchett Discworld story. I hesitate to call it a novel, since it was a scant 155 pages, but any Rincewind tale is a worthy way to while away the hours.
February 14 - My reading has really fallen by the wayside lately. I started the month with a Regency romance, as it felt appropriate and found it... Well, it wasn't great. I think it had too much "you're here, you'll do" vibe than I enjoy and it kind of soured the experience. After that, I decided to read through the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, which took some doing as it's quite long. It was enjoyable and existentially horrifying in equal measures.
February 16 - Some Tessa Dare to help me out of my reading slump. She writes some lovely Regency with characters that are interesting and the dialogue is fun. The catnip of this one seems to be a fake engagement which will turn into real feels soon enough and I am here for it.
February 21 - Spooky, British village with missing girls and religious martyrs. Oh, and the main character is a vicar in her 40s who was sent to this particular place after shenanigans at her inner-city parish. It's gripping and twisty.
February 27 - Nothing like a kraken and a witch having sexytimes at a bathhouse to really make you question your reading choices. It's a lot better than it appeared, and it's quite well written, with a secondary plot that makes sense and everything. It's silly and I'm enjoying it immensely. And after being exposed to the rotten core of British village life, it makes a great palate cleanser.
March 8 - Drowned Country was a cozy read with adorable, flailing boys who love each other but are very bad at expressing themselves. It was also a satisfying conclusion to the Greenhollow duology.
Molly Molloy & the Angel of Death was LOVELY. The publisher wants to call it a romance, but it is not. It is a LOVE story. There is no HEA/HFN. I cried at the end, and wanted to hug Azrael and wrap him in a fuzzy blanket. It was a very good book, and one I highly recommend.
March 22 - I do not like romances that are built around refusing to use your words like a godsbedamned adult. If there is a [situation] that is detailed on the page and the lead (often the male in a het pairing) does not explain WHY they are asking/demanding/requesting [something related to situation] when asked FOR HALF THE FUCKING BOOK, we are not amused. Miscommunications are NOT my catnip. I understand why they're a trope, and it can be amusing (when it's once, possibly twice, and it's cleared up within a chapter or two), but not when that's the central tent pole. GAH.
So I followed up that disappointment with some Max Brooks who knows how to spin a yarn and turn something goofy (sasquatch this time) into something horrifying. Devolution is worth the read.
April 5 - I have found, as I've gotten older, that books featuring protagonists that are themselves middle aged hit that sweet spot of competency and mysterious aches that makes me happy. Killers of a Certain Age is one such offering, and Kings of the Wyld is another. It's high fantasy that reads like the best kind of D&D session, complete with a running gag about owlbears.
It's also one of the few fantasies of recent that are not mired in that grimdark-everything-is-awful swampy mess left behind from the popularity of Game of Thrones. Sure, the main character is a guy, and his band of mercenaries are also all guys, but women aren't relegated to the bedroom or the kitchen. They're people, who are also mercs and a part of bands, and vindictive and cruel and badass, just like the guys. Aside from one incident of domestic violence (the main character's backstory), there is no rape nor treating women as 'less than'.
It was really good and I could wax poetic all damn day until you read it for yourself.
April 11 - I'm following a Regency romance with a Regency mystery. Both feel cozy (the mystery may change as I'm only a couple of chapters in) and deal with manners and society and are pretty good at whisking me away to a time and place.
April 23 - I do love a satisfying conclusion. The Last Binding series by Freya Marske? WORTH THE READ. Not only is it magical realism set in Edwardian England, but it also follows the romance standard of One Couple per Book. All of them are important to the plot and do show up in subsequent books, BUT, the POV switches between the leads and no one else.
Also, the sex? Yes, there is sex on the page. And yes, it is as much (or more) than the average historical romance. It is also SCORCHING. I have read many many MANY romances, and I can name, on ONE HAND, how many have "the scorching sex" that they claim on the cover blurbs. Most of them end up being passable, but the heat level is fair-to-middling. The sex in A Power Unbound? HOLY FUCK, I NEED A COLD SHOWER.
It was good, and hot, and understood things about kink that didn't make me cringe. It also didn't use 'entrance' ANYWHERE and for that, I will be eternally grateful. (One instance of 'opening', though. Not great, but not egregious, so I'll let it go.)
Now, I'm reading a new-to-me Canadian author, and I've just started, and I had to forcibly put it down last night, as I was very much in danger of holding my very own meeting of the Bad Decisions Book Club.
April 29 - Started in on a Regency romance loose retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth. Did I mention that I'm a sucker for retellings of Hades and Persephone? No? I LURVE THEM. Not all of them, of course, but I love that authors often tackle this particular mythological pairing. It's one of the first grumpy/sunshine tropes and I am here for it.
A History of What Comes Next was very good. A lot of historical detail regarding the space race, starting from the end of Nazi Germany and stopping at the start of putting men in space. There was also a brief historical mention of Olga of Kyiv. Shout out to Rejected Princesses and the Tumblr that started it all (Christ, I'm old) for that particular nugget. :)
May 1 - Sometimes, it takes me a while to get around to something online. I've had this particular story (that turned out to be a serialized novella) in a browser tab for a month. I kind of want more of the story. I want to know what happens after they leave to find their friend.
May 5 - I'm not a big fan of shifter romances. They just aren't my catnip, and that's okay. So why am I reading one? It has enough other hooks that I was interested. A Squee review from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books also helped. It's been a fun read thus far.
May 19 - Yes, that's me. And yes, it still continues to be 192k words. I needed to define the voice of Knox and reading his actions and dialogue, even as a side character, helped. Why, you might ask? Welp, Knox decided that he would like his own book, now. So here I am, starting to write his story and how he meets his forever, Aasha.
May 21 - I don't normally read nonfiction, and certainly not biographies. I think after being in university and doing a lot of dry reading for school has given me an aversion to anything that might bore me to sleep. This is not that. So far, it's engaging and I'm enjoying it.
May 29 - I devoured the half-season of Bridgerton and needed more romance in my life, so here I am. This is quite an enjoyable read and I adore how Ms Burrowes turns a phrase.
June 4 - HOW IS IT JUNE ALREADY? Hrm. Yes. Summery reading started with a conversion camp horror written by Chuck Tingle. Because why not? There is definitely something rotten in thestate of Denmark cozy town of Neverton, Montana, and, ho boy, all signs point to Camp Damascus. I'm only a handful of chapters in and we have demons terrorizing the protagonist and body horror and a lot of sketchy sketchy adults.
June 9 - I followed up conversion camp horror with T Kingfisher's next installment in the Sworn Soldier series. I vote for Lieutenant Easton to catch a break, to go back to Paris and just exist for a while. And now I'm reading another romance with a silly premise that might end up being better than I expected. Time will tell.
June 19 - It was indeed silly. Not quite my style, but still enjoyable. I followed that up with a solid Regency from a solid author.
July 5 - Yikes, my reading has really fallen off lately. My brain just isn't in it, apparently. The Regency was fun, the horror that followed was horrific in all the ways that HP Lovecraft would have LOATHED. I mean, I like the worlds he created and the cosmic horror dripping from the pages of his writing, but gods damn, his politics were the WORST. Good book, though, would recommend.
Now onto a modern romance duology with the same couple. I'm invested in knowing what happens next, but there is an angst level that... Oof. The first book I got free and the second was on sale, so at least I didn't pay that much for them.
July 10 - Finally on the second book of the duology. And boy howdy, I am glad that I had it! The first ends on a friggen cliff hanger. UGH. You can get them in one volume, and that would be the way to go. At least that way, you don't have to wonder what happens next. I'm not entirely sure that I'm enjoying them, though. The female lead is great, but the male lead is a lot more of an unrepentant alphole than I look for in my fictional romantic men. "Boundaries are for other people" and "let's talk about this later after [crisis]" are not my catnip. Hell, if I were a cat, this would be citrus. Or alcohol.
July 17 - I'm not quite sure how I feel about Split Tooth. I enjoyed it, and reading it whilst watching Twin Peaks: The Return is kind of a trip. Tagaq and Lynch both meld real with unreal with ethereal where nothing is explained because there is no room on this boat for the slow kids. I might have to delve into Inuit myth, although I already knew about Sedna (thanks to "Emerging Sedna" by Ohotaq Mikkigak, which I own).
July 23 - Plot Twist was a rather enjoyable contemporary. I don't often read contemporaries, and find them more miss than hit. This was a hit, and I recommend it. Now I've switched to a fantasy romance (I am not a fan of 'romantasy' because EW), the third in the series.
August 1 - I generally enjoy GA Aiken, but Heretic Royal was a bit of a bust. Or, at least, it wasn't what I wanted in fantasy romance. I think I might have to leave the rest of the series by the wayside, or adjust my expectations to what I'm getting.
From there, I picked up some horror. Why? Makes a nice change of pace, and it takes place in a small town during a blizzard, which makes the summer heat a bit more tolerable.
August 4 - While reviews are mixed, I enjoy Stephen Graham Jones' Indian Lake books, and since I'm the one reading them, that's all that matters. :) I need to pick up the last in the series at some point. Maybe when it goes on sale, because $18 for a bunch of zeroes and ones is a bit pricey. It will, and then I will, but until then, onto other reads!
Like another rabbit-hole courtesy of Bujold. I have the first two in the trilogy and the third on my wishlist. We'll see how long it stays there, yes? ;)
August 6 - Rabbit-hole, indeed.
August 7 - The third came off my wishlist before I had finished the second. Godsdamn, these are good reads.
August 22 - I put aside the world of the Five Gods and headed into a lovely Regency romance that was highly enjoyable. I had had it on my e-reader for quite a while, and it made the perfect palate cleanser. Now, it's the Wayward Children novellas I got as free giveaways from Tor.com *mumble something* years ago. It's also how I got my grimy paws on the Murderbot series, so I shan't complain.
All the same, they're interesting, quick reads, and suit me just fine for the nonce.
August 27 - The Wayward Children novellas were okay. I keep trying Seanan McGuire and I keep coming away... I dunno. Missed? Unimpressed? It's hard to quantify. I can say this: she's not a writer that I will seek out or put on an auto-buy list or anything of that ilk. I've given a number of her story threads a shot (including her horror written under a pseudonym) and they're well written and readable and somewhat enjoyable, but they're not grabbing me by the lapels and shaking me around until I've read everything she's ever written EVER.
I gave it a fair shake (five novellas, two novels, numerous short stories), I did. But that's more than enough for me.
My appetite has turned back to Regency romance, and the book is LOVELY. It was just the thing I was craving.
September 6 - I kickstarted this months ago and when it arrived, I got hit with a customs COD, easily doubling the price of my book. YIKES. Yes, I did pay it, because I have intimate knowledge of how it works when you refuse a package shipped with UPS, thanks to working in their version of a Dead Letter Office for a year. I've not been reading a whacktonne of short stories lately, and I don't know why; I'm finding this to be exceedingly satisfying in a way I was not expecting.
September 14 - Fun witchy romance to a near-future look at the world a generation from now. The witchy romance was sweet and spicy, with a female lead trapped between the push-and-pull of her grandmother's expectations and mother's perceived passiveness. Enjoyable. So enjoyable, in fact, that I bought the next book in the series. I will likely read that after Doctorow.
Doctorow is very very good at looking at the present and extrapolating the near future. Not everything rings true (mostly the Canadian government pulling its head out of its collective asses), BUT I did rather enjoy having him name check my alma mater for something that wasn't Engineering.
September 17 - Joined the Bad Decisions Book Club to finish the Doctorow. Damn, that was a bittersweet ending. I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but it didn't come out of left field or feel forced. Mostly what strikes a chord is the complete tone deafness of the plutes considering the situation, and their lack of awareness/decency. Good read, though, and I do recommend it.
And then it was back to witchy goodness, which I damn near finished yesterday. That's for later today. Maybe after a nap. :P
September 19 - I spent yesterday with a KJ Charles that I've had for quite some time. Reluctant earls! Assassination attempts! Bad juju! Pants feelings! Magpies!
It was fun, I enjoyed it, and then did a (slightly) naughty thing by picking up the next two from my wishlist. I know what I'm doing for the next couple of days!
September 24 - The Magpie Lord series is the definition of crackfic and I am here for it. Godsdamn, it was good. The sex was scorching, even with the intermittent use of 'entrance', and the over arching plot made sense. It's definitely better read one after the other, like three parts of a larger story instead of three separate novels. Good stuff, and something I will likely (and happily!) reread in the future.
I've since started (and am closer to the end than beginning) a fantasy that I had seen around but never picked up. It's also quite good, but I doubt I will pick up any of the others in the series. I'm invested in this particular book and the world is great, but I'm treating it as a standalone.
September 29 - More historical gay boys! This time from Cat Sebastian. This has been a really good month for reading.
October 4 - From Becky Chambers to Rachel Hartman, I'm diving back into spec fic for a bit. A Long Way... was lovely and complex and I rather enjoyed that humans were not seen as The Greatest Thing Evar. Late to the galactic party, humans aren't even sure they have the right address, but they're staying anyway, dammit, 'cause it's a good party. Definitely one I recommend, as it's on the cozier side of scifi.
Tess of the Road has a pretty strong start, so I'm curious to see where the titular heroine is going to wander off to. It's either get on the road or get forced into a nunnery. Road trip it is!
I enjoyed reading about Tess and her story. It's not finished, and there is a sequel, but if I don't read it, I will also feel like I'm not missing out. It's a weird feeling, but there you go. :)
Now I've gone back to one of my comfort reads, since I've found an omnibus copy of the Ingary novels for stupidly cheap. I've wanted to read the others for a while, so now is as good a time as any!
October 12 - Dianna Wynne Jones does spin a lovely yarn. I have the last book of the trilogy all queued up and ready to go.
October 16 - I followed up Dianna Wynne Jones with a Regency romance. It seemed a better fit than diving straight into horror. Lovely and warm and the perfect read to hide from the real world for a few hours.
October 21 - A horror for Spooky Month. A derelict luxury space liner is found well off the beaten path by a comm beacon repair and refurbish crew of five following a mysterious distress signal. Shenanigans ensue. I am only a few chapters in, and they have just found the ship, missing for twenty years, drifting out in the Kuiper Belt, well beyond the last beacon and outside the comm network.
October 23 - Dead Silence was enhanced by an unreliable narrator, who spends a lot of time doubting the things she sees. Add in an unscrupulous company (this is not a plot twist - there are questions asked about their ethics throughout), and it has that Alien feel. It was a quicker read than I was expecting, but worth it all the same.
October 27 - Two historicals back-to-back, a Regency followed by a Victorian. And while I enjoyed another visit to the Grand Palace on the Thames, because the background characters are so delightful, this second historical romance is a lot more engaging for me.
October 30 - From a woman escaping her overbearing parents (and finally standing up for herself, thank fuck), to a group of geriatrics who all had VERY INTERESTING careers solving a murder at the Big House across the way. Loads of fun and there's even a temperamental tortoise named Hettie who knows much about Big Feet and Lettuce Hands.
November 4 - Simone St James is an author who I pick up when I find her books on sale. None of them have been disappointing or underwhelming, and I have to remind myself to stop and go do other things (like eat breakfast!) because the book will still be there when I get finished with [task]. This is no exception.
November 8 - I read Legends & Lattes yesterday. Not in one sitting - housework waits only so long, natch - but in one day. It felt like the best kind of crackfic from Ao3: Coffee Shop AU. Warm and soft, nothing earth-shattering happening on the page, and the perfect antidote to *waves arm* the tsunami of nonsense out in the real world. It was the right thing to disappear into for a few hours, and the kind of domestic fluff I enjoy.
November 11 - More domestic fluff, this time with a bit more action. As a duology, worth the read, but if Travis Baldree wants to write more Viv and her shop, then I will happily read it.
November 13 - Regency boys! No world shattering drama, no gross politics. Just a boy meeting another boy and falling into lust. *swoon*
November 26 - I gotta say, I got sucked into the world of the "Bring Me Their Hearts" trilogy. So much so, there were quite a few nights celebrating my membership in the Bad Decisions Book Club. Yes, I enjoyed it. I'm also glad that I had all three books before starting, since the first and second end on cliffhangers. My only gripe (and it's minor) is a tiny portion of the epilogue. It happens three years after the main events. It's from a new POV (the books are one character only), explains a little bit of the world and how the characters are doing. Great. Just the kind of thing that I enjoy. AND YET...
Character death is something I accept, when it makes sense. A character died at the end of the trilogy. It was satisfactory. IT MADE SENSE. Reversing that, with no explanation as to the HOW? Yikes on bikes. NO. It's missing a huge chunk of text. Or hell, EVEN ONE LINE (more than Twoo Wuv!) would have been sufficient. Otherwise, the books were rather enjoyable.
Hrm...maybe I will have to find some fanfic to fill in that gap. A fixit, if you will.
December 12 - I closed out November with a contemporary romance set in Toronto. It made for the perfect palate cleanser. I never did find that fixit. Meh. I guess it wasn't that important. :)
I picked up a boxed set of four Regency romances by Theresa Romain for $0.99. The first one was okay. Maybe it was my mood or the fact that I've come down with something (stupid cold), it didn't live up to the expectation I had built up in my head (which is not the author's fault AT ALL). Gonna space the rest out between other books that I have.
December 31 - Closed out the year with Guy Gavriel Kay. As I was reading, I noticed a number of stylistic choices he was making with his writing that I also tend toward. He was a much bigger influence on me than I had realized and I'm tickled.
Let's do it!
January:
- Battle of the Linguist Mages - Scotto Moore
- Remember Me - Mary Balogh
- Accidentally Compromising the Duke - Stacy Reid
- Oedipus Aroused - Robert Devereaux
-
FaustEric - Terry Pratchett
February:
- Not That Duke - Eloisa James
- Mystery Flesh Pit National Park - Trevor Roberts
- One Dance with a Duke - Tessa Dare
- Burning Girls - CJ Tudor
- Stalked by the Kraken - Lillian Lark
- Drowned Country - Emily Tesh
March:
- Molly Molloy & the Angel of Death - Maria Vale
- Rules for Heiresses - Amalie Howard
- Devolution - Max Brooks
- Kings of the Wyld - Nicholas Eames
April:
- How to Tame a Wild Rogue - Julie Anne Long
- A Gentleman Fallen on Hard Times - Grace Burrowes
- A Power Unbound - Freya Marske
- A History of What Comes Next - Sylvain Neuvel
- Temple of Persephone - Isabella Kamal
May:
- Have You Eaten? - Sarah Gailey (all of it is here)
- A Most Unusual Duke - Susanna Allen
- Guarded Hearts - VK Evans
- The Lady From the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick - Mallory O'Meara
- Never a Duke - Grace Burrowes
June:
- Camp Damascus - Chuck Tingle
- What Feasts At Night - T Kingfisher
- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon - Kimberly Lemming
- How to Catch a Duke - Grace Burrowes
- Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff
July:
- Kingmaker - Kennedy Ryan
- Rebel King - Kennedy Ryan
- Split Tooth - Tanya Tagaq
- Plot Twist - Erin La Rosa
- Heretic Royal - GA Aiken
- Don't Fear the Reaper - Stephen Graham Jones
August:
- Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold
- Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold
- Hallowed Hunt - Lois McMaster Bujold
- Bed of Flowers - Erin Satie
- Every Heart a Doorway - Seanan McGuire
- Down Among the Sticks and Bones - Seanan McGuire
- Beneath a Sugar Sky - Seanan McGuire
- In an Absent Dream - Seanan McGuire
- Come Tumbling Down - Seanan McGuire
- Gentleman Jim - Mimi Matthews
September:
- Bitter Become the Fields - short story collection by various writers
- Witch Please - Ann Aguirre
- The Lost Cause - Cory Doctorow
- Boss Witch - Ann Aguirre
- The Magpie Lord - KJ Charles
- A Case of Possession - KJ Charles
- Flight of Magpies - KJ Charles
- Sabriel - Garth Nix
- Two Rogues Make a Right - Cat Sebastian
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
October:
- Tess of the Road - Rachel Hartman
- Howl's Moving Castle - Dianna Wynne Jones (reread)
- Castle in the Air - Dianna Wynne Jones
- House of Many Ways - Dianna Wynne Jones
- A Rogue by Night - Kelly Bowen
- Dead Silence - SA Barnes
- My Season of Scandal - Julie Anne Long
- Belle of Belgrave Square - Mimi Matthews
- The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp - Leonie Swann (translated by Amy Bojang)
November:
- Silence for the Dead - Simone St James
- Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree
- Bookshops & Bonedust - Travis Baldree
- Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting - KJ Charles
- Bring Me Their Hearts - Sara Wolf
- Find Me Their Bones - Sara Wolf
- Send Me Their Souls - Sara Wolf
- Her Big City Neighbor - Jackie Lau
December:
- The Viscount's Inconvenient Temptation - Theresa Romain
- All the Seas of the World - Guy Gavriel Kay
January 5 - What can I say? When a book's blurb mentions both Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash and Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, I'm going to be making grabby hands. I picked it up recently and started it yesterday. It feels very dense, and I'm curious where it's going to go from here.
January 18 - While I enjoyed Battle of the Linguist Mages while I was reading it, it hasn't made much of an immediate impact. Maybe it's a disconnect. Or maybe it's that I'm old enough to not be the 'target' audience. Or maybe I would have been more satisfied by putting it down midway through and reading something else, getting back to it at some unspecified time. I dunno.
Enjoyable in the moment, but nothing that lingers, be it character, concept, or plot.
So I started a Regency written by Mary Balogh and it's what it says on the tin. The characters are lovely. The respective families do the right amount of meddling. The leads are only four years apart, very understanding, and emotionally mature. It's warm and fuzzy with very little conflict or angst. Hot tea on a cold day. Or napping in the afternoon sun when you don't feel well.
January 20 - I seem to be picking books that are great in the moment, but do not stick beyond, "hey, I read that." This one is no exception, and I'm a little bummed. Ah, well. I have lots to choose from and lots that will break from this bland box I've found myself in. The books aren't BLAND, per se, so maybe it's me? I dunno. Onward, et cetera.
January 22 - I'm not entirely sure why I started reading Oedipus Aroused, but here we are. Although considering that I (with two other classmates in an university Sophocles translation course) had the mad idea to rewrite the Oidipous Tyrannos as an Aristophanic comedy (it writes itself!) leaving the chorus parts untouched and serious, this tracks. It's a fever dream, unapologetic and dripping with jizz. It's also the perfect antidote to that mess of a Achilles re-imagining I hate read last year.
January 30 - I spent yesterday reading a new-to-me Terry Pratchett Discworld story. I hesitate to call it a novel, since it was a scant 155 pages, but any Rincewind tale is a worthy way to while away the hours.
February 14 - My reading has really fallen by the wayside lately. I started the month with a Regency romance, as it felt appropriate and found it... Well, it wasn't great. I think it had too much "you're here, you'll do" vibe than I enjoy and it kind of soured the experience. After that, I decided to read through the Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, which took some doing as it's quite long. It was enjoyable and existentially horrifying in equal measures.
February 16 - Some Tessa Dare to help me out of my reading slump. She writes some lovely Regency with characters that are interesting and the dialogue is fun. The catnip of this one seems to be a fake engagement which will turn into real feels soon enough and I am here for it.
February 21 - Spooky, British village with missing girls and religious martyrs. Oh, and the main character is a vicar in her 40s who was sent to this particular place after shenanigans at her inner-city parish. It's gripping and twisty.
February 27 - Nothing like a kraken and a witch having sexytimes at a bathhouse to really make you question your reading choices. It's a lot better than it appeared, and it's quite well written, with a secondary plot that makes sense and everything. It's silly and I'm enjoying it immensely. And after being exposed to the rotten core of British village life, it makes a great palate cleanser.
March 8 - Drowned Country was a cozy read with adorable, flailing boys who love each other but are very bad at expressing themselves. It was also a satisfying conclusion to the Greenhollow duology.
Molly Molloy & the Angel of Death was LOVELY. The publisher wants to call it a romance, but it is not. It is a LOVE story. There is no HEA/HFN. I cried at the end, and wanted to hug Azrael and wrap him in a fuzzy blanket. It was a very good book, and one I highly recommend.
March 22 - I do not like romances that are built around refusing to use your words like a godsbedamned adult. If there is a [situation] that is detailed on the page and the lead (often the male in a het pairing) does not explain WHY they are asking/demanding/requesting [something related to situation] when asked FOR HALF THE FUCKING BOOK, we are not amused. Miscommunications are NOT my catnip. I understand why they're a trope, and it can be amusing (when it's once, possibly twice, and it's cleared up within a chapter or two), but not when that's the central tent pole. GAH.
So I followed up that disappointment with some Max Brooks who knows how to spin a yarn and turn something goofy (sasquatch this time) into something horrifying. Devolution is worth the read.
April 5 - I have found, as I've gotten older, that books featuring protagonists that are themselves middle aged hit that sweet spot of competency and mysterious aches that makes me happy. Killers of a Certain Age is one such offering, and Kings of the Wyld is another. It's high fantasy that reads like the best kind of D&D session, complete with a running gag about owlbears.
It's also one of the few fantasies of recent that are not mired in that grimdark-everything-is-awful swampy mess left behind from the popularity of Game of Thrones. Sure, the main character is a guy, and his band of mercenaries are also all guys, but women aren't relegated to the bedroom or the kitchen. They're people, who are also mercs and a part of bands, and vindictive and cruel and badass, just like the guys. Aside from one incident of domestic violence (the main character's backstory), there is no rape nor treating women as 'less than'.
It was really good and I could wax poetic all damn day until you read it for yourself.
April 11 - I'm following a Regency romance with a Regency mystery. Both feel cozy (the mystery may change as I'm only a couple of chapters in) and deal with manners and society and are pretty good at whisking me away to a time and place.
April 23 - I do love a satisfying conclusion. The Last Binding series by Freya Marske? WORTH THE READ. Not only is it magical realism set in Edwardian England, but it also follows the romance standard of One Couple per Book. All of them are important to the plot and do show up in subsequent books, BUT, the POV switches between the leads and no one else.
Also, the sex? Yes, there is sex on the page. And yes, it is as much (or more) than the average historical romance. It is also SCORCHING. I have read many many MANY romances, and I can name, on ONE HAND, how many have "the scorching sex" that they claim on the cover blurbs. Most of them end up being passable, but the heat level is fair-to-middling. The sex in A Power Unbound? HOLY FUCK, I NEED A COLD SHOWER.
It was good, and hot, and understood things about kink that didn't make me cringe. It also didn't use 'entrance' ANYWHERE and for that, I will be eternally grateful. (One instance of 'opening', though. Not great, but not egregious, so I'll let it go.)
Now, I'm reading a new-to-me Canadian author, and I've just started, and I had to forcibly put it down last night, as I was very much in danger of holding my very own meeting of the Bad Decisions Book Club.
April 29 - Started in on a Regency romance loose retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth. Did I mention that I'm a sucker for retellings of Hades and Persephone? No? I LURVE THEM. Not all of them, of course, but I love that authors often tackle this particular mythological pairing. It's one of the first grumpy/sunshine tropes and I am here for it.
A History of What Comes Next was very good. A lot of historical detail regarding the space race, starting from the end of Nazi Germany and stopping at the start of putting men in space. There was also a brief historical mention of Olga of Kyiv. Shout out to Rejected Princesses and the Tumblr that started it all (Christ, I'm old) for that particular nugget. :)
May 1 - Sometimes, it takes me a while to get around to something online. I've had this particular story (that turned out to be a serialized novella) in a browser tab for a month. I kind of want more of the story. I want to know what happens after they leave to find their friend.
May 5 - I'm not a big fan of shifter romances. They just aren't my catnip, and that's okay. So why am I reading one? It has enough other hooks that I was interested. A Squee review from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books also helped. It's been a fun read thus far.
May 19 - Yes, that's me. And yes, it still continues to be 192k words. I needed to define the voice of Knox and reading his actions and dialogue, even as a side character, helped. Why, you might ask? Welp, Knox decided that he would like his own book, now. So here I am, starting to write his story and how he meets his forever, Aasha.
May 21 - I don't normally read nonfiction, and certainly not biographies. I think after being in university and doing a lot of dry reading for school has given me an aversion to anything that might bore me to sleep. This is not that. So far, it's engaging and I'm enjoying it.
May 29 - I devoured the half-season of Bridgerton and needed more romance in my life, so here I am. This is quite an enjoyable read and I adore how Ms Burrowes turns a phrase.
June 4 - HOW IS IT JUNE ALREADY? Hrm. Yes. Summery reading started with a conversion camp horror written by Chuck Tingle. Because why not? There is definitely something rotten in the
June 9 - I followed up conversion camp horror with T Kingfisher's next installment in the Sworn Soldier series. I vote for Lieutenant Easton to catch a break, to go back to Paris and just exist for a while. And now I'm reading another romance with a silly premise that might end up being better than I expected. Time will tell.
June 19 - It was indeed silly. Not quite my style, but still enjoyable. I followed that up with a solid Regency from a solid author.
July 5 - Yikes, my reading has really fallen off lately. My brain just isn't in it, apparently. The Regency was fun, the horror that followed was horrific in all the ways that HP Lovecraft would have LOATHED. I mean, I like the worlds he created and the cosmic horror dripping from the pages of his writing, but gods damn, his politics were the WORST. Good book, though, would recommend.
Now onto a modern romance duology with the same couple. I'm invested in knowing what happens next, but there is an angst level that... Oof. The first book I got free and the second was on sale, so at least I didn't pay that much for them.
July 10 - Finally on the second book of the duology. And boy howdy, I am glad that I had it! The first ends on a friggen cliff hanger. UGH. You can get them in one volume, and that would be the way to go. At least that way, you don't have to wonder what happens next. I'm not entirely sure that I'm enjoying them, though. The female lead is great, but the male lead is a lot more of an unrepentant alphole than I look for in my fictional romantic men. "Boundaries are for other people" and "let's talk about this later after [crisis]" are not my catnip. Hell, if I were a cat, this would be citrus. Or alcohol.
July 17 - I'm not quite sure how I feel about Split Tooth. I enjoyed it, and reading it whilst watching Twin Peaks: The Return is kind of a trip. Tagaq and Lynch both meld real with unreal with ethereal where nothing is explained because there is no room on this boat for the slow kids. I might have to delve into Inuit myth, although I already knew about Sedna (thanks to "Emerging Sedna" by Ohotaq Mikkigak, which I own).
July 23 - Plot Twist was a rather enjoyable contemporary. I don't often read contemporaries, and find them more miss than hit. This was a hit, and I recommend it. Now I've switched to a fantasy romance (I am not a fan of 'romantasy' because EW), the third in the series.
August 1 - I generally enjoy GA Aiken, but Heretic Royal was a bit of a bust. Or, at least, it wasn't what I wanted in fantasy romance. I think I might have to leave the rest of the series by the wayside, or adjust my expectations to what I'm getting.
From there, I picked up some horror. Why? Makes a nice change of pace, and it takes place in a small town during a blizzard, which makes the summer heat a bit more tolerable.
August 4 - While reviews are mixed, I enjoy Stephen Graham Jones' Indian Lake books, and since I'm the one reading them, that's all that matters. :) I need to pick up the last in the series at some point. Maybe when it goes on sale, because $18 for a bunch of zeroes and ones is a bit pricey. It will, and then I will, but until then, onto other reads!
Like another rabbit-hole courtesy of Bujold. I have the first two in the trilogy and the third on my wishlist. We'll see how long it stays there, yes? ;)
August 6 - Rabbit-hole, indeed.
August 7 - The third came off my wishlist before I had finished the second. Godsdamn, these are good reads.
August 22 - I put aside the world of the Five Gods and headed into a lovely Regency romance that was highly enjoyable. I had had it on my e-reader for quite a while, and it made the perfect palate cleanser. Now, it's the Wayward Children novellas I got as free giveaways from Tor.com *mumble something* years ago. It's also how I got my grimy paws on the Murderbot series, so I shan't complain.
All the same, they're interesting, quick reads, and suit me just fine for the nonce.
August 27 - The Wayward Children novellas were okay. I keep trying Seanan McGuire and I keep coming away... I dunno. Missed? Unimpressed? It's hard to quantify. I can say this: she's not a writer that I will seek out or put on an auto-buy list or anything of that ilk. I've given a number of her story threads a shot (including her horror written under a pseudonym) and they're well written and readable and somewhat enjoyable, but they're not grabbing me by the lapels and shaking me around until I've read everything she's ever written EVER.
I gave it a fair shake (five novellas, two novels, numerous short stories), I did. But that's more than enough for me.
My appetite has turned back to Regency romance, and the book is LOVELY. It was just the thing I was craving.
September 6 - I kickstarted this months ago and when it arrived, I got hit with a customs COD, easily doubling the price of my book. YIKES. Yes, I did pay it, because I have intimate knowledge of how it works when you refuse a package shipped with UPS, thanks to working in their version of a Dead Letter Office for a year. I've not been reading a whacktonne of short stories lately, and I don't know why; I'm finding this to be exceedingly satisfying in a way I was not expecting.
September 14 - Fun witchy romance to a near-future look at the world a generation from now. The witchy romance was sweet and spicy, with a female lead trapped between the push-and-pull of her grandmother's expectations and mother's perceived passiveness. Enjoyable. So enjoyable, in fact, that I bought the next book in the series. I will likely read that after Doctorow.
Doctorow is very very good at looking at the present and extrapolating the near future. Not everything rings true (mostly the Canadian government pulling its head out of its collective asses), BUT I did rather enjoy having him name check my alma mater for something that wasn't Engineering.
September 17 - Joined the Bad Decisions Book Club to finish the Doctorow. Damn, that was a bittersweet ending. I'm not sure if I liked it or not, but it didn't come out of left field or feel forced. Mostly what strikes a chord is the complete tone deafness of the plutes considering the situation, and their lack of awareness/decency. Good read, though, and I do recommend it.
And then it was back to witchy goodness, which I damn near finished yesterday. That's for later today. Maybe after a nap. :P
September 19 - I spent yesterday with a KJ Charles that I've had for quite some time. Reluctant earls! Assassination attempts! Bad juju! Pants feelings! Magpies!
It was fun, I enjoyed it, and then did a (slightly) naughty thing by picking up the next two from my wishlist. I know what I'm doing for the next couple of days!
September 24 - The Magpie Lord series is the definition of crackfic and I am here for it. Godsdamn, it was good. The sex was scorching, even with the intermittent use of 'entrance', and the over arching plot made sense. It's definitely better read one after the other, like three parts of a larger story instead of three separate novels. Good stuff, and something I will likely (and happily!) reread in the future.
I've since started (and am closer to the end than beginning) a fantasy that I had seen around but never picked up. It's also quite good, but I doubt I will pick up any of the others in the series. I'm invested in this particular book and the world is great, but I'm treating it as a standalone.
September 29 - More historical gay boys! This time from Cat Sebastian. This has been a really good month for reading.
October 4 - From Becky Chambers to Rachel Hartman, I'm diving back into spec fic for a bit. A Long Way... was lovely and complex and I rather enjoyed that humans were not seen as The Greatest Thing Evar. Late to the galactic party, humans aren't even sure they have the right address, but they're staying anyway, dammit, 'cause it's a good party. Definitely one I recommend, as it's on the cozier side of scifi.
Tess of the Road has a pretty strong start, so I'm curious to see where the titular heroine is going to wander off to. It's either get on the road or get forced into a nunnery. Road trip it is!
I enjoyed reading about Tess and her story. It's not finished, and there is a sequel, but if I don't read it, I will also feel like I'm not missing out. It's a weird feeling, but there you go. :)
Now I've gone back to one of my comfort reads, since I've found an omnibus copy of the Ingary novels for stupidly cheap. I've wanted to read the others for a while, so now is as good a time as any!
October 12 - Dianna Wynne Jones does spin a lovely yarn. I have the last book of the trilogy all queued up and ready to go.
October 16 - I followed up Dianna Wynne Jones with a Regency romance. It seemed a better fit than diving straight into horror. Lovely and warm and the perfect read to hide from the real world for a few hours.
October 21 - A horror for Spooky Month. A derelict luxury space liner is found well off the beaten path by a comm beacon repair and refurbish crew of five following a mysterious distress signal. Shenanigans ensue. I am only a few chapters in, and they have just found the ship, missing for twenty years, drifting out in the Kuiper Belt, well beyond the last beacon and outside the comm network.
October 23 - Dead Silence was enhanced by an unreliable narrator, who spends a lot of time doubting the things she sees. Add in an unscrupulous company (this is not a plot twist - there are questions asked about their ethics throughout), and it has that Alien feel. It was a quicker read than I was expecting, but worth it all the same.
October 27 - Two historicals back-to-back, a Regency followed by a Victorian. And while I enjoyed another visit to the Grand Palace on the Thames, because the background characters are so delightful, this second historical romance is a lot more engaging for me.
October 30 - From a woman escaping her overbearing parents (and finally standing up for herself, thank fuck), to a group of geriatrics who all had VERY INTERESTING careers solving a murder at the Big House across the way. Loads of fun and there's even a temperamental tortoise named Hettie who knows much about Big Feet and Lettuce Hands.
November 4 - Simone St James is an author who I pick up when I find her books on sale. None of them have been disappointing or underwhelming, and I have to remind myself to stop and go do other things (like eat breakfast!) because the book will still be there when I get finished with [task]. This is no exception.
November 8 - I read Legends & Lattes yesterday. Not in one sitting - housework waits only so long, natch - but in one day. It felt like the best kind of crackfic from Ao3: Coffee Shop AU. Warm and soft, nothing earth-shattering happening on the page, and the perfect antidote to *waves arm* the tsunami of nonsense out in the real world. It was the right thing to disappear into for a few hours, and the kind of domestic fluff I enjoy.
November 11 - More domestic fluff, this time with a bit more action. As a duology, worth the read, but if Travis Baldree wants to write more Viv and her shop, then I will happily read it.
November 13 - Regency boys! No world shattering drama, no gross politics. Just a boy meeting another boy and falling into lust. *swoon*
November 26 - I gotta say, I got sucked into the world of the "Bring Me Their Hearts" trilogy. So much so, there were quite a few nights celebrating my membership in the Bad Decisions Book Club. Yes, I enjoyed it. I'm also glad that I had all three books before starting, since the first and second end on cliffhangers. My only gripe (and it's minor) is a tiny portion of the epilogue. It happens three years after the main events. It's from a new POV (the books are one character only), explains a little bit of the world and how the characters are doing. Great. Just the kind of thing that I enjoy. AND YET...
Character death is something I accept, when it makes sense. A character died at the end of the trilogy. It was satisfactory. IT MADE SENSE. Reversing that, with no explanation as to the HOW? Yikes on bikes. NO. It's missing a huge chunk of text. Or hell, EVEN ONE LINE (more than Twoo Wuv!) would have been sufficient. Otherwise, the books were rather enjoyable.
Hrm...maybe I will have to find some fanfic to fill in that gap. A fixit, if you will.
December 12 - I closed out November with a contemporary romance set in Toronto. It made for the perfect palate cleanser. I never did find that fixit. Meh. I guess it wasn't that important. :)
I picked up a boxed set of four Regency romances by Theresa Romain for $0.99. The first one was okay. Maybe it was my mood or the fact that I've come down with something (stupid cold), it didn't live up to the expectation I had built up in my head (which is not the author's fault AT ALL). Gonna space the rest out between other books that I have.
December 31 - Closed out the year with Guy Gavriel Kay. As I was reading, I noticed a number of stylistic choices he was making with his writing that I also tend toward. He was a much bigger influence on me than I had realized and I'm tickled.
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