maharetr

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?

Finished:
To be taught, if fortunate by Becky Chambers.
This was a very companionable read. It’s the sort of plot of a road trip novel in space, if the road trip had been funded by earth crowdfunding, which is sort of what’s happened here. The writing is a slight step below spectacular maybe (which is still head and shoulders above most works), but the world building is top notch, as is the feel of the science, and the depictions of the wonders – and traumas – of space and other planets. I found myself very faintly impatient with the ending while I was reading it, and then while I was drifting off to sleep that night, I found myself thinking of the ‘discoveries’ my mind thought we’d just learned we’d made, and then thinking ‘yes. Go on. Yes.’ – the story felt that real that it had just gently settled itself into my consciousness, and that’s unsettlingly cool. The quote that the title comes from was written at the end, and is fucking amazing.

Currently reading
The second mountain by David Brooks. Still reading. I feel like it’s starting to spin its wheels a little, 100 pages in, so I’m hoping for new material and ideas soon. ETA: true to form, the chapter ‘Vampire Problems’ was not at all what I thought it was going to be about (how to stop say, toxic people dragging you down), and was in fact about how to make a choice that was going to entirely change your identity and selfhood, when you only have previous/current self’s knowledge on how to make that choice. Fantastic concept, that then also slid back into repetitive examples. In theory persisting, in practice I’m putting off reading it, but I also feel like I’m putting off reading anything at the moment, so grain of salt.

The big book of post-collapse fun by Rachel Sharp. I was deeply charmed by what I read in the sample, and wanted to curl up in this world, with this character, enough to buy the book. The rest of the book is slightly more wobbly than that, but I’m reading along, gamely enough.

Time lapse (The 13th doctor short story) by Naomi Alderman. This reads very much like an episode. That’s…not a bad thing, I guess? And it’s a neat premise for an episode – everyone on the planet has forgotten the year 2004 – but I’d been hoping for a written story, something that showed me the inner thoughts of a particular character, say. I read an interesting post about point of view, and how basically ‘camera length’ away from the characters POV is an entirely valid point to write from, and it might be! It’s just not the version I prefer, and it’s the version I’m trying to write myself away from. There’s so little feeling or intimacy with it, and that’s what I realise I’m craving in my fiction.

Up next:
Um. Maybe T Kingfisher’s horror story? I dunno how wise a choice that is, though…

Finished reading
On eating meat by Matthew Evans. I stalled out on this one for a while there, and I’m not totally sure why. Possibly because I was feeling bogged down in a technical details and the like, and when I don’t have a whole lot of brain to spare, it all felt like too much effort. Have pulled through that and into the later part of the book which is about balancing humanity’s diets and land use. It’s really noticeably western-centric in these parts. Not in an unexpected way, I guess, but there’s been no mention of the entire swaths of the world that are lactose-intolerant (or, to put it more realistically, have not needed to develop the tolerances to consume another species’ milk). And possibly he doesn’t need to mention it, it just feels like a notable silence.

Having now finished. He makes some excellent points (by which I mean I agree with a lot of them, if not all of them), but it also feels a bit like all he's made are points, rather than a coherent overarching argument. Part of that might be that there are just a lot of disparate points that make up a whole, but it also made for disjointed reading, which was also possibly why it took me so long. Chapters didn't flow into each other or connect to each other, and even the points made within chapters didn't flow, and were often broken up with a … I don't know the technical term, a fancy page break symbol, which didn't help. 3.5 whatevers out of 5.

Currently reading
How powerful we are by Sally Rugg. All of the behind-the-scenes (and before camera) activism by GetUp and co on the campaign for marriage equality. Sally Rugg is fantastic, and I'm loving this, and have been inhaling this. The wins and the sacrifices, the regrets, and the raging, and the battle still to come.

The second mountain by David Brooks. Tentative chapter skimming. Reading the introduction, and already found an 'oof' line: "A commitment is falling in love with something and then building a structure of behaviour around it for those moments when love falters." (page xx)


Up next

I have a Plan, Goddammit. Once I finish Powerful, I get to buy The Testaments on Tuesday from Rabble Books. Oh god so much trepidation, so much interest. There’s talk of it being about the downfall of the Gilead regime, and I trust Atwood to do it much, much more than I trust the show to show a rebellion/fighting back against Gilead.

I'm also gonna read the 13th doctor's short story, which I got from the library, purely because Naomi Alderman wrote a 13 story, and I’m here for both of these things, so hard. And then work my way backwards through the doctors, and see how many I get through.

Longer-term side plans.

Becky Chambers novella "To be taught, if fortunate..", and the Joanna Russ novella "Those who are about to…". I learned about the latter after reading about the former, and they sound like the flip sides of the same coin – both extensive space travel, one brutally grim and the other hopeful. We'll see.

The post-apoca book of fun by Rachel Sharp.

I also somewhere in all this want to watch the last season of Black sails. Oh, self.

What I'm reading:
Put aside:
Blackout: How is Energy-Rich Australia Running Out of Electricity by Matthew Warren. It's time to admit I don't have the brain space for 'entirely new-to-me topic' right now. It might be worth picking up over the holidays when I've got less going on.

Currently reading
Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Sady Doyle. This was one I've had my eye on for a while. I half-accidentally subscribed to the free section of Doyle's essay email list Thing, and she very sensibly opened up her email essays to non-paying subscribers in the lead up to her new book, because damn she's good at this, and I never would have thought to buy it without that nudge. It was even worth giving Amazon money for the ebook, honestly.

Bad mothers is an impeccably referenced (SOURCES, FOOTNOTES, THANK YOU), compelling written cultural analysis of women-as-monstrous in western culture. It dissects the brutal loop between cultural narratives about women, cultural representations (books, movies) of those narratives, and then the very real violence that men inflict on women as a result, closing the loop. It’s gruelling reading, but Doyle's warmth and humour shines through. Her dry, deadpan comment about Bram Stoker's wedding night had me muffling my laughter on a packed morning train. I've inhaled about 30% in three days, which is good going for me right now. I'm also keen to get back to it each time, which is so very welcome.

Up next:
The light between worlds by Laura E. Weymouth, waiting on reserve for me at the library!

As I emerge, blinking, from the depths of months of Hugo reading…

Finished reading:

Vox Machina : Origins (I, graphic novel)
I'd heard...not great things? But they were going Cheap, and I'd been hearing Much better things about Origins II that's just rolling off the press now, so.
Vox Machina : Origins I, Issue 1 wow, so Matt Colville really doesn't like Vex, huh? (I don't know the difference between a 'story by' and a 'script' credit, but I'm stubbornly in denial that Matt Mercer might have written Vex that cold) Having said that, the twins banter actually still made me laugh aloud, and the comedic timing with Keyleth was pitch-perfect. So that's rather large something. And I like the art a lot.
Issue 2...it's sort of a problem when I legit feel more for the random nameless paladins and their dead party member, and like Tiberius Stormlord, more than Grog or Scanlan. Like, that's not great. Then on into Issues 3-6 The comedic timing of the twins becomes actual sniping and arguing when they're alone, apparently, and I hate that. The art is still impressive, but I'm feeling like this is a comic that's really only for diehard fans, and I say that as someone who's watched nearly the first quarter of campaign 1. Or it's just not that great. I have more hopes for Origins II, given that's being helmed by the woman who's also writing/helming the animated series. Also I've heard people who've griped about I speak far more warmly about II

The crane wife by CJ Hauser. Okay, it's not a book, but I still want to quietly cup it in my hands and offer it to people. It's a memoir article by a woman who cancelled her wedding a week out from the big day, and why, and how she's grappling with her life, and it's fucking devastatingly good. Content notes for infidelity, but also subtle, brutally effective gaslighting and emotional abuse. It made me cry, and made me feel infinitely fragile and also bigger than I had been before I started it. Set aside ten minutes to read it, and then time after for a quiet sit and a cup of tea, or something.

Currently reading:
Blackout: how is energy-rich Australia running out of energy? by Matthew Warren The 'setting of the basic groundwork' of the early chapters was also 'teetering in the edges of my ability to understand and retain'. A diagram or two might have helped. I'm deep in the chapter on political decisions that got us to now, and all the places that I'm seeing where things could have been achingly different. I didn't know Melbourne was one of the first cities in the world to have a(n embryonic) electricity grid. It's sort of inescapably dry, but still good, necessary knowledge to have.

The gentleman’s guide to vice & virtue by Mackenzi Lee. Well-to-do son of an earl goes on his Grand Tour/1800s gap year. This is charming and queer and well-written, and often deftly funny in that sort of way that looks effortless but takes real skill. It actually reads like quality fanfic (pleasing tropes especially), which I appreciate in spades in a published book. The author does point out racism and sexism, pointedly. I would have also preferred a stab at the colonialism inherent in both the era and the idea of a Tour, but that might have made it a rather different book. As it is, the writing style carries the day. The plot itself wobbles a little on the fact that while alchemy might have been a serious field of study in the 1800s, we still don’t have a cure for (spoiler redacted), so the main impetus falls a little to the side. At 350 of 520 pages, I'm still enjoying myself, though, and I'm really looking forward to the sequel/companion book which focuses on Felicity, who I'm adoring.


Up next:
Not sure. There's a bunch of things that I've either bought (On eating meat, by Matthew Evans), or been gifted (P&P), plus books that are about to come out any second now…(I'm trying to compile a list)

On eating meat, by Matthew Evans – an ethical omnivore’s take on eating meat
The lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy, by Mackenzi Lee
Family of origin – novel by CJ Hauser of above article, which was released two weeks ago.
Growing Up Queer in Australia, edited by Benjamin Law
Quarterly Essay on Safe Schools, Moral Panic 101, by Benjamin Law
Dead Blondes & Bad Mothers: on monsters & the fear of female power, by Sady Doyle, out 13/8/2019
Yes Yes Yes: Australia’s Journey to Marriage Equality by Shirleene Robinson, Alex Greenwich
How powerful we are, by Sally Rugg, out this month. Another marriage equality campaign book, that I’m looking at specifically because there’s apparently a chapter on the impact on queer Australians during the vote, which is not something that I’ve been able to find any sort of data on at all.
The light brigade by Kameron Hurley – still waiting curiously to see if this is going to make it to Australia
Seafire – N C Parker – girl pirates!

General thoughts on:
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Tess of the road, by Rachel Hartman
The cruel prince by Holly Black
The Call
Children of blood and bone

Now with Dread nation by Justina Ireland

( Some emotional beat spoilers for the Belles, and there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

General thoughts on:
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton
Tess of the road, by Rachel Hartman
The cruel prince by Holly Black

Now with The Call and Children of blood and bone.

( Some emotional beat spoilers under a second cut for the Belles, and there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

Under here are reviews of:
Beneath the sugar sky
The black god's drums
Gods, monsters, and the lucky peach

( No actual spoilers under here, but there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )

(Rolling update: have now finished and reviewed Space Opera, with only Calculating Stars to find and read)

( No actual spoilers under here, but there's a fair amount of overall feelings, if you're the easily influenced type *raises hand* )