maharetr

Finished reading:
The witch's kind by Louisa Morgan
This feels like cottagecore at its very nearly perfect: nothing happens, the bad things (while described, and deserve trigger warnings) are in the past thanks to the flashbacks with now-reflections. It's not a Romance Novel by any stretch of the imagination, but reading it I get why so many people devour them. It has the same sort of feelings, even if what Barrie Anne is in love with is her farm and her adopted daughter with her aunt by her side. I really liked the emotional ebb and flow, and the characters' motivations. Motivations sound trite, but I legit believe why Barrie Anne wanted the fantasy of the relationship, and how badly it was going to crash down for her, and I ached for her. I can see how Morgan built to the ending she constructed, but I'm not sure the dramatic climax was necessary per se. I'm seesawing between 3.5 and 4 stars out of five for this one. I definitely don't regret buying it. I'd gladly get another book of this author's from the library, though.
( Trigger warnings slash spoilers )

Currently reading:
The house in the cerulean sea by T L Klune. This is the X-Men meets Miss Peregrine's House meets on-page queers, and dear god, it's also really good. The sentence level could do with some tweaking, but the voice is so incredibly droll and wry and has made me laugh out loud several times. Worth noting, many characters are over-the-top and dare I say hilariously mean to the main character in the lead up to him leaving his routine and going to find the other main characters, but it was all so sharp that I trust that when the catharsis hits, and the comfort flows in, it's going to be just as good. Two lines have made me catch my breath and want to hug it to my chest so far, and I'm anticipating many more. Also worth noting: the main character is fat, and there's a little fatphobia from the (mean) characters, and some internalized fatphobia on his part. I have every hope that the author is better than validating or vindicating that fatphobia in the rest of the book, but I'm also wary. Queer doesn't mean good rep in other areas, so while I'm hoping, I'm also careful. I'll report back.

Some days later, and a hundred pages from the end, and so far so good on the body acceptance, but the emotional pacing has waned a little. After such a good beginning, the middle of the book is flagging for me, sadly. Thinking about it, the first third of the book had the emotional tension of being uncomfortable in the known world, but also being sent away into the scarier unknown. Getting to know the children is interesting, but there hasn't been an underlying emotional tug, either a desire on Linus's part to stay, or a (strong enough) desire for Arthur, or an internal *something*. It's still a good book! But it's been striking seeing my own emotional response to what's going on. I'm really hoping it picks up in the last hundred pages.

Up next:
Picking Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke back up.

Finished reading:
The lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I know I'm fifteen years late to the party, but Gods, this was so good. As a first-published novel I am SO IMPRESSED. I inhaled 500 pages of it, and I can't think of anything I'd cut, even. I loved Father Chains so much, and the twins, and watching Locke just determintedly bullhead his way through cons to a goal (a set of nice clothes! by this evening!) was watching a master at work. I feel like the story wobbled the dismount ever so slightly, and then nailed the landing so well I literally put the book/phone down and covered my face for a moment. Oh my feels. I'm deeply keen to read the second one, but shall take a short breather and go with some light-obligation/curiosity reading first.

The year the maps changed by Danielle Binks. A debut Australian pre-teen novel. It was a gift from my Granny for my birthday, which means I wanted to like, but as a novel feel like it tried to do way too much. Winnifred (Fred)'s family life is complicated, and not by choice – her mum had Fred as a single mother, met Luca when Fred was three, and Luca then became Fred's adopted dad. Fred's mum then died when Fred was six, leaving Fred with an adopted dad, and a maternal (I think) grandfather. Then as our story starts, Luca has gotten into a relationship with a woman who has a year-younger son, both of whom have moved into Fred, Luca, and Pop's house. I desperately wanted to know what it felt like, psychologically, to be growing up not-quite-adopted, but also so adrift from a 'grounded' for want of a better word, family.

And Binks does touch on it, but she also layers in a ( spoiler ) and the main plotline about small-town Australia grappling with the (based on a true story) arrival of a group of Albanian refugees from the Yugoslavian war, and there's no space for any of those three things to get the proper depth they all deserved, which is a damn shame.

Currently reading:
I'm reading a novel I kickstarted, but it's not great, and I may well DNF. Gonna give it 50 pages or so.

Up next:
Attempting to reserve as an ebook from my local library:
Upright women wanted by Sarah Galliey, which I've had my eye on for a while (post-apoca Western! Queer librarians on horseback!). Goodreads reviews seem to say it's a 'fails well' novella, with much pleading for an actual novel. So I'm doubly curious to read it.

Finished reading:
The mysterious Benedict society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Lemony Snicket with more pages and much, much less grim. This was so sweet and ridiculous and pleasant to read. I would have liked a touch more plausibility in "my child geniuses save the world from some very vague subliminal messaging that's apparently a threat?" story (I know, I know…) But I still read all the way to the end, and faced with nothing to read or the next one in the series, I tried to get the next one.

Currently reading:
The extraordinary education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart. I couldn't get book two, but could get the '5th-published prequel, that only contains only spoilers for book one,' so, sold! This is much better, or at least just as well written and much more grounded: this is the elderly Benedict of the first book as a 9 year old genius trying to dodge and outsmart the bullies at the orphanage, make friends, and solve a hidden treasure mystery, and I am HERE for it. At about half way through, It's a very, very cosy read so far.

Up next:
The house in the cerulean sea isn't available for many more weeks, sadness, but I have a witchy fiction book and a witchy non-fiction book incoming, I hope. Also the actual-second book in the Benedict series, maybe, if it comes back.

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, I wrote, some months ago. And then the whole pandemic, obviously, and things went even more pear-shaped. I'm letting the Hugos slide by this year, and making peace with that. I don't think the cost of the individual things I might want to read equals the cost of a supporting membership, either.

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. (Months later update: Yay! It made it! I'm super interested in its nomination numbers post-Hugos now, too.)

• 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. 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 Smendrick – 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 Hagsville. It's impressively dark, actually. It's also taking me 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. Later update: Slogged through to the end, but/and the final pages made it immensely worth it. The last five pages, settled deep in self-aware wryness, were an actual pleasure. I'm glad I read the book, overall.)

• The goblin emperor by Katherine Addison. (Review from over many, many weeks' reading) I've heard many people adore this one, and I'm interested to give it a proper go. Oh my heart. Maia is the exiled son of the emperor's discarded fourth wife, which makes him approx. 5th in line for the throne and never ever intended to rule. One airship accident later… 

( Read more... )

• A lady's guide to petticoats and piracy by MacKenzi Lee. I really enjoyed her first one, A gentleman's guide to vice and virtue, and this one was…close, but was more of an unrealized potential. There were excellent moments early on: Felicity hanging out with Monty and Percy was an utter, warm, loving joy that I shall cradle to my heart for a long, long time. I want to create that feeling in other people with my writing, even. But many of the other characters – Joanna and Sim, for example, had such nearly-fully-realized potential that I ached at that gap. Also the plot … wasn't. I kept waiting for it to start, honestly, rather than having the characters meander around, and it never quite happened. So I'm delighted to have it on my shelf to read those first few chapters over and over, but the book as a whole didn't quite make it for me. Useful learning reading!

Finally finishing The Goblin Emperor and working my way through Petticoats and piracy marked the start of my pandemic reading. Then I was delighted to stumble across this list https://bookriot.com/feel-good-fantasy-books/. I sampled my way through this list and decided to order about 6 of them.

Didn't finish:

• Witchmark by C L Polk. I wanted to like this so much! And it was close, so close to being good. But while the book laid out an interesting magic/electricity world, and a nice romance, at 130ish/320 pages, I didn't care about the central plot-point murder, and the goodreads reviews I tentatively read said that the book does that debut novel thing of never quite getting deep enough into its themes (trauma healing, magical healing, PTSD, enslavement etc). After slogging through the previous book of not-quite-working, I'm being Strong, Dammit, and putting it aside.

Currently reading:

• A green and ancient light by Frederic S. Durbin. This sample snagged me hard emotionally within the first few sample pages (adults sincerely respecting kids' personhood and internal lives are my absolute weakness), and now re-reading it with the physical book, it's doing it just effectively. I keep hesitating at certain points of reveal, worried that it won't keep being as good, and at about a third of the way through, it's still standing up, I say in part to coax myself to keep reading. The blurb quote bills it as "Mythic in its universality" which it is in fact decidedly not -- it feels very clearly WW2 evacuated-to-British countryside, even if it's very careful not to name itself (or any of the main characters, which feels delightful in a whole other charming way), but I'm still very much loving it.
• The mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. More distinctly a children's book than I usually read, but fucking delightful and cosy at 30 pages in.

A to-sample-reads list, as haphazard as it might be:
Ash, by Malinda Lo
The girls of paper and fire, by Natasha Ngan

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?

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!