maharetr

Finished reading:

The good thief by Hannah Tinti. I really enjoyed her writing style, but then ending sort of wobbled for me. I'd interestedly pick up something else by this author, though.

Piranesi by Susanne Clarke. Oh man. This really is a book I want to reread so I can watch it unfold with my newfound knowledge. Not that Clark did anything startlingly unexpected or novel, but there feels like an immense satisfaction knowing ….ugh. All of it. Trying to put it into works feels like diminishing it into simplistic concepts, but that doesn't help when you're trying to describe it to someone else. As someone who likes books where not much happens? It's good, it's very good. It's not perfect (heads up for not-great queer rep, and also a single paragraph of entirely unnecessary fatphobia), but despite those flaws, it still managed to make me feel immensely peaceful and more secure in the world, so there is that.

Silver in the wood by Emily Tesh Argh. I want to like this so much! This is exactly the sort of story I want to have written! Forest spirits, and forest protector! Multiple types of masculinity, and a queer relationship! But damn. It desperately needs another edit (it's readable! But *makes face*), and the first part of it feels so rushed. I know it's a novella so probably had word count limits, but I really wanted another thousand words to be able to settle into the setting, and then a few more thousand to establish the antagonist properly. I've just started the second half. I love Mrs. Silver already, but idk if she's going to be enough to negate the fact that the first half was a lot of manly-man walking around the forest using a crossbow to kill explicitly-female dryads, and an off-screen human woman described as an ogress for being allegedly overbearing. I'm still reading, but I'm grieving what could have been, and not yet planning to pick up the sequel.

Having now finished it: I rescind the ogress complaint: Mrs. Silver was the GREATEST! But I was left so frustrated and grieving what could have been if the narrative as a whole had been given enough words to breathe. All of it just felt too rushed. :( Not getting the sequel.

“A Guide for Working Breeds” by Vina Jie-Min Prasad. Short story finalist for this year's Nebulas, which was how I stumbled over it, and now Hugo finalist too! This was laugh out loud funny, and still makes me smile. Robots and their robot mentors.

Finna by Nino Cipri (novella) Recced by fredmouse <3. I was utterly charmed by this. I wanted (and still want) more relationship grounding—I know they just broke up, but I wanted to feel what they'd lost—but the ending felt more and more right the longer I sat with it, which is a kudos in its own right. I'm glad it made the Hugo shortlist. I'm expecting something else to be better than it, honestly, but it's a worthy contender.

Klara and the sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. I read Never let me go after seeing the trailer for the movie, which means that I went into that particular book not even realising there was a twist to be slowly, horrifyingly revealed. Of all the books I wish I could (re)read cold for the first time, that book is on the top of the list. So I went into Klara very interested and as cold as possible. I read this over a weekend, ( general, mostly feelings-based spoilers )

The murders of Molly Southborne by Tade Thompson. Holy shit. Passed on to me from fredmouse via chaosmanor. chaosmanor also passed on that it was full of gore and body horror, and confusing, but if I could make it through the first chapter I'd be fine. I knew starting this at night was not a great idea, but I did it anyway, absently picking it up this (Tuesday) evening and started reading the first few pages curiously, on my feet. I figured I could stop should it start to get too creepy. I read it straight through in one sitting, and okay, it helped that it was only 117 short pages, but STILL.

( One tiny detail that I wish had been addressed ) Regardless, I was entirely willing to roll with both the opening and the premise, and still wasn't quite sharp enough to twig to how it pulled together, and goddamn, that was an EXCELLENT use of a novella, and the ending was fucking great. Thinking about it, the writing style/voice feels like The queen's gambit, and it works really, really well for it: that tight third person of someone who's outside the mainstream world but also knows shit.

Epic heads up for body horror and gore and violence, tho. I don't know that I'd want to consume a steady diet of said, and I'll…probably be okay sleeping tonight, but I can see how other people wouldn't be.

The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams. In 1901, the word 'Bondmaid' was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. This was both excellently written and frustrating in tiny, sharp, specific ways. This was so cosy in a white, middle-class British way that I kind of squirm at how much I enjoyed it, but I did. I did keep muttering 'where are the queers? Where are they?' Once I realised the live-together-forever sisters were fictionalized takes on actual historical real people, I relaxed a little, but still, a narrative that included positive feelings towards (former) sex workers, and the stories of working-class people of colour, the silence around queers felt…loud.

The author wanted to tell the stories of women and the women's words that had been excluded from the literal record of the dictionary, and she did a good job there, using a fictional woman to channel that, including several common grief-experiences that hit really well and hard, like, the author is good at this, but the author also for some reason intentionally dodged several moments of emotional impact. Like, it feels very distinctly like the author didn't feel like her fictional character was allowed to make active choices. The story of her life still works, but as a writer, I was left blinking that a few scenes were missing crucial sentences that would have allowed the character to be a fully rounded person, and been immensely emotionally satisfying for (this) reader, and argh. I critique because I liked? I guess? And am also taking notes for my own writing.

DNF:

When rain turns to snow by Jane Godwin. Australian YA. A boy turns up on a girl's doorstep with an infant child. I was tempted into this one by the lyrical writing (for lovers of Fiona Wood indeed <3) and the authentic teenage-Australian voice. I rage-quit at page 50-70 or so when I realised that most of the book was going to be these very young teenagers ineptly not-properly caring for an ill infant and actively not telling an adult (MC's mum is Right There, to be told and for administering life-sustaining care, jfc) for a hundred plus pages and fuck no. Tween/teen me probably would have liked it, but apparently adult-me Cannot. Will Not. Nope.

Currently reading:

Homesick by Nino Cipri. (also from fredmouse) I'm two and half short stories into this collection, and holy shit, it's GOOD. The third story—a ghost? Who-knows-what's-going-on!? Story was so good/unsettling that I stopped reading before bed and was epically unsettled for sleep. Highly recced daytime reading!

Up next:

Genuinely want to re-read Piranesi, doubly so now that it made the Hugos.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. Public service announcement: I have been informed that one of the heroines is a bisexual mermaid sea captain, at which point this book goes from "This author's first book was solid, but I didn't grab its sequel, and I'm not really running to pick this new series up, even if it has been Hugo-shortlisted" to 'holy shit, keen library reserve, yes pls!'

Finished reading:
Anxious People, by Fredrik Backman
I liked one of his previous books, am keen to read translated novels, and one of the blurbs of this made me cackle. This was the sort of book felt like it was Being Clever, rather than actually being clever. That said, it made me laugh out loud on public transport, and then made me tear up on public transport, so it's also doing things right. The ending is rather pat, but I'm also giving it a pass for how much it made me smile. On balance, I rec it.

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home, by Jeffrey Cranor, Joseph Fink
I adored the modern-day sections, but the bulk of the novel (the historical sections) didn't hold my interest anywhere near as much as I'd hoped. I feel like it was aiming for Lies of Locke Lamora territory and fell short, which is a damn shame because I love the podcast even if I no longer listen. It might well be better as the audiobook, with Meg Bashwiner's voice to carry it through, but it's still sort of ( general spoiler )


Currently reading:
The queen's gambit by Walter Tevis. Library grab, based on the captivating TV show and chaosmanor's rec. I am just--fucking--what. How did he do that. Genuinely, this is tight-third-person, but also so tell-y, and HOW did he make chess games, where I have barely any idea what's going on, SO TENSE? HOW is his writing so compelling? I am staring at it in writerly baffled awe, and relishing the ...there's a name for it. Voice echo? where you write or talk in the mannerisms of whatever you've just been around. Thank you, Walter Tevis, my god.

Up next:
The good thief by Hannah Tinti. Paused a little way into it so I can go library book reading, but looking forward to getting back to its quietly lyrical language.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. rachelmanija's post about 'go into this as cold as possible', and a brief snatch of 'kindest protagonist' and I'm THERE. I've placed a reserve on it at the local library.

Finished reading:
Or rather, am finished with the book.
Family of origins by CJ Hauser. So 18 months ago (such a goddamn long time ago), Hauser's article The crane wife went viral for profoundly deserved, emotionally-devastating reasons. Based on that article, I asked my library system to buy a copy of her book when it came out, a year ago (still So Fucking Long ago). It finally came in, juuuust in time for my Xmas break.

I picked it up based on the writing strength of the article. The quality of the book was...not as great. This feels like a novel that was started in a creative writing class. Some of those are incredibly good! This was a 'I'll try again with her second novel' She's deliberately not used speech marks, which...can work? But Tim Winton she's not, and it's been long enough since I read Cloudstreet that I'm not even sure it totally worked for Winton, either. It's very...there are the occassional flashes of emotional brilliance (what I suspect she was able to distil her article down into), and that kept me going through a lot of the rest of the overwrittenness. A couple of things kept me reading: one of the characters put in an application to go to Mars as a civilian settler, and makes the interview shortlist, which to me put it far enough in the future that I was genuinely interested in all the other ways Hauser thought the near-future was going to be. Also, I would 100% believe that Hauser has a secret or not-so-secret AO3 account and a love for the ( spoiler ) fandom. I'm not into said fandom per se, but I'm curious about the workings of said, and both of those things got me to about the half way mark.

Then at the halfway mark, I started to suspect that the trip to Mars was more an exploration of the character's feelings, rather than a 10-20 years into the future jump. I started to realise I didn't actually like either of these characters much, either. I calculated approximately how long it was going to take me to read the other half, decided I'd rather spend those hours doing something else, and jumped forward to read the final chapter. I don't regret any of it. I'd interestedly pick up her second novel from the library. The crane wife is still an incredible article.

Currently reading:
The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
A young woman in 1700s France unthinkingly stumbles into a monkey's paw deal with a night god. "I don't want to be forced into a marriage/I don't want to belong to anyone/I want to live a full life and then you can have my soul when I don't want it anymore" becomes a cursed immortality of "everyone will forget you".

This is...also overwritten, but in a way that I'm willing to read past because the underlying themes--being forgotten by everyone, being unable to leave any intentional mark of your own--hits me in the heart so hard. I don't love Addie per se, yet, but I love, love relationship loops, and trying to leave whatever mark however indirectly, and trying to have a meaningful life. I love the woman Addie fell in love with, Sam; and I love, love Henry, the man who, Addie's just realised, can remember who she is. Considering she stole a book from his shop yesterday, this is a problem...

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Eternally on the current list, I'm sure. It's gotten overlooked with all the new shinies from the library and Xmas, so I'm mostly listing it here to keep it in the mental pile.

Up next:
SO MANY GOOD Christmas presents.
The faceless old woman who lives in your home -- a Welcome to Nightvale novel with a killer of an opening line. Idk if it's going to be able to sustain an entire novel's worth of this tight brilliance, and if it can, if it's going to be too exhausting to read, but I'm excited to find out.

The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams. A fictional take on women's perspectives during the creation of the Oxford dictionary. Loved the sample.

The once and future witches by Alix E. Harrow. Purely on my adoration of The ten thousand doors of January

Finished reading:
The house in the cerulean sea by TJ Klune This was such a whiplashy read. The humour was sharp, but it was interspersed with really clunky sentences. There were sections that I inhaled, and covered the opposite page so I wasn't spoiled, and then there were parts where I stalled out so hard I stopped reading mid-scene. Once I realised there wasn't going to be a romance subplot, I was able to appreciate it a bit better for what it was, but there was still places where it could have sung better than it did. The fat positivity wavered a little, and didn't go anywhere near as hard as I wanted, but I think it mostly held. Actually, now that I'm thinking about that part, we're only told in retrospect that Linus enjoys his body now, and dammit, I wanted that to be far more forefront and shown than it was. I wanted more intimacy and warmth and actually settling into the relationship that we get so told about in the last 10 or so pages. Argh.

ETA: I realise now what I wanted was an oh moment (that moment when one character looks over at another character and realises in their bones that they loved this enemy/friend/other character). Which…possibly wouldn't have fit in with the narrative the author was constructing, where we're supposed to in theory wonder if he wants to go back right until he does. (In practice, of course we know). But, still. I missed my oh.

I'm glad I bought it, and I'm going to keep it in part for the analyzing of my own writing, and figuring out where things falter and why. This was SO CLOSE to being a wonderful, perfect novel For Me, and now that urge to write the book that will in fact be the Perfect Novel For Me is starting to itch…

Currently reading:
Defying Doomsday, anthology of apocalypse short stories featuring disabled protagonists. I like the idea of short stories very much, and I'm always super impressed by people who can deftly pull them off. I don’t tend to seek out anthologies though, so I'm grateful for the Rebuilding Tomorrow kickstarter for making it so each for me to both get that ebook, and for waving the ebook of Defying Doomsday at me so temptingly.

The first story I read was indeed pleasing in its deftness, and I'm part of the way into the second story (not quite as deft, but still good), and oh god actually I cannot deal with apocalypses right now. My reading persnicketies means I won't read Rebuilding (which has several sequels of Defying's stories) until I've read the first, so I'm going to leave both on my ebook shelf until later. Maybe vaccine-later, should we make it to such heady times.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I've picked it back up now that I've finished Cerulean. Still very charmed. Have ordered my own copy so I can have it as bedtime reading.

Mooncakes by Wendy Lu and
FINALLY arrived on order at my LBS. Only a few pages in and loving the art style.

Up next:
Nnggh, so many things. Mostly for my own reference, but in case anyone else is on the hunt:

The invisible life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab Deeply into the promise of that premise, and goodreads says it is at least partly queer, so I'm in. Probably going to read the excerpt, and then go the buy route if I like it.

Anxious people by Fredrik Backman Freaking SOLD by that blurb, and really liked the My Grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry I'd read of the author previously. On reserve at the library.

Written in the stars by Alexandria Bellefleur. Tale of modern queer women, inspired by Pride and Prejudice, right down to one of the women being called Darcy <3 <3 I'm real wary of the astrology angle, honestly—I like astrology as a frivolous thing, but this bit where some people seem to be taking it seriously enough to sincerely pigeonhole people on entirely arbitrary grounds makes me extremely uneasy. I'm going to give…

Frostbite by her a go first if I can find a non-Amazon copy (m/m retelling of Beauty and the Beast novella) and see how I feel about her style.

Finished reading
The vanished birds by
I…don't know how to feel about this one! I was tipped off to it by Abigail Nussbam's review (don't read that, though, it spoils everything), and liked the sample enough to shell out for the Booktopia ebook. I liked the…someone referred to the first part of this novel as being like an excellent short story that you wish there was more—and then there's an entire novel of it, right there! And they're not wrong. This novel tempted me saying it was about the dislocation of space travel, of being so much older/younger than everyone else because you've been traveling outside linear time etc, and it's a bit about that, but it's also in theory about found family and finding that family on said spaceship journey, while actually attempting to deconstruct that. It's also a lot about capitalism and companies in space, and trying make a life for yourself within those restrictions.

I feel like this was excellently written (a few tiny but markedly weird sentences but that's just my editing brain), and that it hooked a lot of people in, but I wasn't one of those people. I feel like I should have been and maybe last year or next year I would have, even. I finished it. I liked it well enough. But I never had that spark with the characters that I needed in order to love it, which feels like it's both on me and that I missed out on something excellent.

Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
This the other part of my birthday gift from Granny, and a book I never would have read otherwise. I've read very few translated novels, so I was pleased to have this opportunity lightly shoved at me. This was both devastating and frustrating to read. It's a book detailing the discrimination and misogyny that infuses South Korean culture (and everywhere. This could have easily been written about Australian women with only surface tweaking, if that). It's written in a deliberately distanced style, and while that style has a purpose that's revealed at the end, I'm not sure it served the narrative well enough to justify it (there might also be translation hiccups in the mix). The ending was a Handmaid's Tale style gutpunch, and also didn't answer the question that had kept me reading. I'm not sure if I've just been raised in, and continue to be encircled by, feminism, but it's moderately disconcerting to me that this was apparently such a world-wide hit?

Currently reading:
Oh god. So I went from drifting along, not feeling inspired by anything, to having multiple books I want to read at once. I'm aware this is technically the opposite of a problem, but I've hit the point where reading more than one fiction/linear book at a time feels overwhelming.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke
Yeah, I'm fifteen years behind the curve, and I'm okay with that. Right as of typing, I'm 50 pages into it, and loving the wry, 19th century tone with the hints of a 21st century smile. I impulse got this out of the library. I realise it's rather foolish to get a 1000+ page novel out of the library intending to read a few pages before sleep each night, but whatever. I'm enjoying it enough that I'm seriously tempted to buy my own copy if I don't finish this one in time.

The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This was one of the feel-good fantasy list from forever ago that finally arrived. Based on the sample, this one wasn't so well written, but it tugged at me nonetheless and quarter of the way through it, my instincts were so, so sound in that. Post-WW2 US, and witchy Barrie Anne (Apparently Barrie is a rare but existing girl's name. I had no idea) and her Aunt Charlotte find themselves with a baby girl that possibly fell from the sky. I am deeply hooked by this: both curious about the child, but actually perfectly okay with curling up in this little house on this little farm with everyone's feelings (emotional and witchy-premonition). I could finish this in a few days, easily, and I almost don't want to. ( Content notes )

Up next:
The house in the cerulean sea by TL Klune. So looking forward to this one!

Finished reading:
The mysterious education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart. I liked it, on the whole. The middle third sort of floated away a bit, and I'm not sure the book needed to be as long as it was, but it came back down to a satisfying, pleasing ending. I'm not as keen to hunt out the second in the series with the first and the prequel being as unmoored as they were, but glad I read them. And hey, finished something, again! \o/

Currently reading:
The lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. This has been on my radar since forever, and the universe nudged me to find it again recently ("Warning," someone plugged it on one of my DnD group chats, "will make you want to play an entire party of rogues." Which is honestly on my DnD bucket list.) So I thought I'd download the Amazon sample and buy it from my local bookshop if it was actually as good as people said. When I searched for it on my Kindle app, it promptly downloaded the entire book onto my phone? Apparently past-me bought it years ago? So, that's a win.

As a first novel, I'm very, very impressed. It's slightly over written, but only barely, and the teasing out of the unanswered past questions is enough to keep me reading, rather than annoyed. At page 100 or so out of 500, the establishing work has been amazing, and I'm moderately interested in the emerging plot. It's also – with deliberate background casualness – featured one of the briefer but most harrowing torture sequences I've ever read or seen, and that I'm still thinking about, a day or so after reading it. Welp. Still reading.

Up next:
The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This was one of the books that made the shortlist from the feel-good fantasy novel list, and is waiting for me as soon as my next-next book shows up at my local bookshop for posting.

With Witchmark the writing was solid, but I wasn't hooked. I bought it anyway, because surely, surely good enough was close enough, and it was going find my interest…it wasn't, and didn't, alas. The witch's kind is hopefully going to be the flip side of that – the writing read much closer to self-published, but when I finished the sample, I wanted to know what happened next. So I'm hoping my gut will steer me better this time.

Finished reading:
A green and ancient light by Frederic S. Durban. This turned out to be exactly the sort of thing I needed to read about now: the personal stakes of rescuing and hiding an enemy soldier, and solving a long-kept riddle, rather than the world being about to end. A small village, and so many green things and soothing nature. Beautifully written by an adult vividly remembering what it was to be nine, and having a wonderful relationship with his grandmother for a single summer. Yes please. Also, I finished it! The ending was almost too heartbreaking – real, and therefore heartbreaking – to be bitter-sweet, I'm near to recommending that people stop reading before the last few pages, honestly. Highly reccing the rest of it.

Currently reading:
The mysterious Benedict society by Trenton Lee Stewart. This is a children's book, and a delightfully free-floating one at that. This is 'the world will end!!1!1!' type drama, but it's intentionally so over-the-top and wryly written that I both don't mind and it's keeping me engaged. I doubt I'll try the next in the series, but it's a much-needed, very pleasant, 500-page diversion right now.

Up next:
I'm quietly desperate for The house in the cerulean sea by T J Klune to come in from my order list. Having something to read/fall into is keeping my headspace on an even-keel, enough that I might well start the next one in the Benedict series just so I've got a Something.

aaahhh Finally getting back in the saddle, so to speak. Not putting – or trying not to put – pressure on myself to post these regularly, just when I have the cope. So!

Finished reading:
The thousand doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. January is a biracial girl in early 1900s England and Europe, who discovers she can write her desires into existence. I loved this. It was luscious and almost overwritten and I ate every word. It ends somewhat rushed, but I also loved one of the closing paragraphs so much that I took a photo of it before I returned it to the library. It’s on my Hugo nomination ballot, even, such as that is.

Cleaning sucks! by Rachel Hoffman. This was what I expected her first book was going to be: a well-laid out, nicely graphically designed colour interior journal about getting on top of your mess. It's a little light on the psychological nitty-gritty details in favour of concept lists, maybe, but if you're willing to take it on, maybe with a blank journal for feelings unburdening alongside it, then strongly recced.


Currently reading:
The last unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Has been on my vague wanna list for forever. I’m surprised at how dark it is so far, honestly, but thoroughly, if slowly, enjoying it.
ETA: The writing is so skilled and occasionally catch-my-breath amazing. I’d expected to adore Molly Grue based on this gifset, and I came to like her, but it was Schmendrick – his bumbling, low-level ineptness as he just tries to keep his head down and stay out of trouble – that was the unexpected star for me. It's such a dark tale, with the carnival – the harpy was genuinely unsettling – and the cursed Hagsgate. It's impressively dark, actually. Also charmingly meta, and with what feels like unsettling pokes at people in current time to stand up and Do Something.

It's also taking me approx. triple the amount of time I thought it would take to read it. I'm butting up against a renewal notice from the library, and that's on a three week loan. I'm terrible at quitting a book once I'm over 100 or so pages in (pretty good about the "you have 50 pages to interest me, book. Go!") but once I'm past that point, slogging onwards apparently it is, especially if there are flashes of wonder in there. Nearly there, but wow.

Up next:
The goblin emperor by Katherine Addison. I've heard many people adore this one, and I'm interested to give it a proper go. I'm feeling so small and tired at the moment, though, and I'm sort of apprehensive.

Finished reading:

Winter's tale by.Nike Sulway, illustrated by Shauna O'Meara Oh. Honestly, this was a Kickstarter that I'd looked at, thought, 'I'd love that to succeed, I'll help bump them over the line and then retract if they made it okay before the deadline', and then forgot to cancel. I'm glad I forgot to cancel, because this was a genuinely magical, whimsical, captivating read. Winter is a baby and then a child looking for a place to belong, and somewhere to call home. I adore the art style. I'm not sure who the target audience is, exactly – kids in longer term foster care, definitely. But while Winter is about 6, I think, the language rings to an age group several years old. Regardless, gorgeous, and I'm so glad it got made, and that I got to read it.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang as a whole.
( Last of the storie under here )

In sum: really good collection, very glad I read it. Tempted to go read the rest of the stories in the The story of your life now.

The girl who drank the moon by Kelly Barnhill. Huh There's some powerful ideas here, but it was let down by a fairly hefty pacing issue. I was most interested in the villagers rather than the ostensibly-main characters. Antain, for a long time, was actually the most interesting, sympathetic character to me. Xan and Luna (the witch and the girl respectively) should have been, but they were let down by the memory spell blocker maguffin, and the fact that Luna's entire plot-job was to wait until she turned 13 and her magic manifests. Given we first meet her as a baby, this is a problem. The villagers, and the Sisters within it, were all far more interesting to me because they had agency and characterisation and were generally active – trying to have lives and/or make others' lives miseries. The ending wasn't the grand battle of wills and force, but I actually liked it for that. And the final few chapters damn near made me cry. As one goodreads author pointed out, it could have done without a hundred of those pages in the middle, but the rest of those 200 or so were really good.

Currently reading:
Because internet Gretchen McColloch. Purchased! It's easy enough to dip in and out of, pleasingly. I'm learning a new thing every few pages, even. I'm a mix of Old Internet Person and Full Internet, by the look of it – someone who used social media platforms (Full Internet) to make friends that I was unlikely to ever meet (Old internet).

The ten thousand doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. This is a luxurious type of read. Very competent and skillfully done, doubly so for a first novel. It's almost too rich, maybe; I need to have a certain amount of alertness to get into it each read. Having said that, I think on the way home on the train at about page 30 or so, I had my first 'I want to close this book and hug it to my chest' moment. That's a win. I'm deliciously reminded of the "I picked up a pen, I wrote my own deliverance."

Up next:
One of Nalini Sighn's first-of-series, maybe it's about time!

Finished reading:
The tenth doctor: The mystery of the haunted cottage by Derek Landy. Apparently more than a few of these had been written alongside the filming of their respective doctors, and sometimes it shows – this dialogue doesn’t sound like Tennant, but having said that, Landy is SO GOOD at tight, witty jokes. This pokes fun at all the derring-do of Enid Blyton’s etc books and was genuinely funny in many places. I could have done with more interrogation of the fat phobia, and less of the ‘dismissing companion’s concerns’ at the end, but it was still good.

Then I got part way into Eccleston's story, and it wasn’t bad, but I was abruptly done with Doctor Who for a while. Returned to library.

The big book of post-collapse fun by Rachel Sharp. This was… very self-published, and it felt it in many frustrating ways. I liked the beginning, was cranky-reading the middle, and then softened into enjoying the last third. I liked Mabs, but having finished it I could see how it really needed a pacing and overview edit, as well as a fine-toothed comb edit. (“The truck lasted a hundred kms” she narrates at one point, and I thought “an hour? Two if you’re going really slowly because road debris?” and she then proceeds to describe a trip lasting several days. Which, um. GOOGLE IS A THING. MAPS IS *RIGHT THERE*) The last third was actually really good. To bring me back from cranky-hate-reading into settled re-enjoying the ride is no small feat. I desperately wanted to reach into the text and tighten several pieces, but the ending was actually good enough that I’m contemplating buying the second one to stay in that world a little longer. *respectful, impressed nod in Sharp’s direction*

Currently reading:
Because internet by Gretchen McCulloch. I found out about this via a tumblr post, appropriately enough, and am So Excited to buy this beyond the sample. A linguist studies the eddies and flows of an entirely new-to-history form of communication: informal written, aka Internet speak, which I love so much *points up to the capitalization for emphasis markers, and the actions in asterisks right here*.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Liked what I read from the sample, borrowed from the library.

Up next:
Maybe The twisted ones by T Kingfisher?