Random reading post, to be updated as I remember

What I've read this year:
Arclight by Josin Mcquein: A solid enough post-apoca YA novel. Strong opening pacing. I finished it thinking that I would be interested in reading the second one, once she needed a plot, and where she'd take that plot.

Gifts by Ursula Le Guin: A bequilingly simple story. It does facinating, tiny things; setting us up with an expectation of Horrifying, Inevitable things to be revealed. This expectation kept me reading for a good half of the novel, even though there wasn't much in the way of plot. And then Le Guin introduces a gutting emotional component that kept me transfixed for the next quarter... and then she deftly subverts that initial expectation, does the reveal, and it's nothing like what we expected, and so much more horrfying than I ever expected, and I'm even now faintly shivery about it, thinking it through. Also interested in reading the sequel and where she starts/takes her plot.

Attempted to read:
A Thousand Kingdoms by N K Jeminsin: I gave it 50 pages, and then stopped because of consistencies and holes in worldbuilding. People are welcome to assure me it firms up, and I'll wade through the lengthy dream sequence that was the dealbreaker at page 50ish.

What I'm currently reading:
Monstrous regiment by Terry Pratchett