maharetr

Have finished:
My grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry by Fredrik Backman. Finished, with a few tears on my part, and some low-key odd ableism on the author's part (not naming the 'boy with the syndrome', ever? Really?), and some tiny puzzlements, but still satisfying and I'm glad I read it. Was very similar to Extremely loud and extremely close from some years back, but I liked it much, much better. It felt like it was much less about making a Grand Point, and more about telling a cosy story about a group of people.

Strange waters Samantha Mills. OH GOD. So each year I mean to do at least some reading of the works rounded up by Asking the wrong question's Abigail Nussbaum as Hugo nominations in time to actually add my nomination. This year at least, I got around to reading one or two at all, never mind the long-past deadline *cough*. But HOLY GOD, I hope this short story made it. (ETA: sad it didn't, but so it goes) I love time travel stories So Much, as a preface, and this one both mashed my buttons and is also, I think, devastating in its own right. 6000 or so words and highly recced.

Currently reading:
Spindle's end by Robin McKinley. Despite my frustrations with Beauty, the things I loved about it were enough to sway me into picking up the next available (to me) one. I'd actually read the first page a few times over the last few years, and kept bouncing off it for whatever reason, but apparently cosy domestic magic is 1000% what I'm about right now, because yup here for needing to de-magic your teakettle and asking bread to stay bread, very much. A hundred or so pages in and it strikes me as a deeply leisurely read, and one that I don't wan to rush through for the sake of having read it, so I'm putting it aside for a few months probably because...

Up next:
Clearing the decks because the Hugos are here! The Hugos are here!

Have finished: (Since the start of January or so)

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy: A young teenager inherits something the secret magical community is willing to kill to get; she gets a skeleton as a body guard/mentor in the process. He’s awesome. An odd mix of really enjoyable, and also terrible action scene writing. Mostly charming, and I’m into basically everything except the action scenes. Female protagonist for the win, and not only that, but it feels like Landy carefully read the feminist handbook on how to write said female characters, and therefore wrote several excellent female characters of varying skillsets and motivations (I adore all of them), and in particular passed the Bechdel test with two of the otherwise-possibly-in-competition-with-each-other instead supporting each other and being respectful and fierce with each other. Tanith Low is so great. It’s the start of a looong series, and I’m not sure I’m up for all of them, but I’m tempted to wiki ahead enough to jump into the Tanith-specific book.

Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend: A charming debut. A Second world diverts into an even more magical Third world. Good solid writing, generally good world building with only one or two glaring missteps. Billed as the new generation’s Harry Potter, and I’d buy that. Interested in reading the next one when it comes out, probably.

South by southeast by Anthony Horowitz: Picked up because of the most glorious play on words in the first few pages. A loving piss-take of the hard-boiled detective novels of yore. Nothing quite matched that level of genius for the rest of the book, but it was a pleasant diversion.

Artemis by Andy Weir: A young woman who grew up on the moon space station gets embroiled in a murder/corruption conspiracy. Seems v well researched, even if most of the technical stuff went over my head. This was an odd read. I could almost hear Weir writing it, which is a point against it, but near the end I realised I wasn’t mulling over how the denouement was going to go down as much as I was really keen to keep staying in that world. I liked the main character, even if she wasn’t totally likable as a person. I’d still read thousands more words of it, even though I didn’t care about the plot.
The switch by Anthony Horowitz: Rich spoiled boy gets body-swapped with a poor circus boy. The fatphobia is intense here. It was otherwise well constructed, but wow, heads up for said fatphobia and also classism. So, you know. Anti-rec.

Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa: This is so fucking great, oh my god. I’m up to volume 17 of 27, and it’s amazing. I’d bypassed it for a long time because I had the idea it was hyperviolent (kinda is, in spots), and military macho. It’s… written by a woman, it turns out (I didn’t know enough about Japanese to pick genders in names, honestly), about two alchemist brothers who are trying to get their full bodies back after a resurrection ritual to return their mother went unsurprisingly hideously wrong. There are SO MANY female characters, and they’re all doing so many different, interesting things, and brothers Ed and Al are full of heart and cranky and I really hope things work out for them all (although I’m sure it’s not *peers through fingers*). Also excellent commentary on war and the military and corruption and on disability and accessibility aids (Ed has an ‘automail’ arm and leg). This summary of themes etc (tumblr link) is a take on it. Highly recommended.

The raven and the reindeer by Ursula Vernon (writing as T. Kingfisher): Gorgeous retelling of The Snow Queen (of which I’ve not read the original). Amazing control of language, and characters who are hilarious and wrenching by turn. Queer love story! Happily ever after queer girl ending! Highly recommended.

Currently reading:
Fullmetal Alchemist volumes 17-20 by Hiromu Arakawa. gaaaaaahhhhh still love it. It’s oddly harder to remember quite what’s happened where and when, probably because of the episodic nature of the magna format, and I’m just less used to reading manga in general. But still fucking loving it.

An accident of stars by Foz Meadows: this is much slower going (an unfair comparison, to a manga). Portal into second world. Queer people and queer girls esp, everywhere. Also poly ftw. At 21% or so, and it’s got good potential.

Up next:
Planning to storm through the rest of Fullmetal Alchemist, at least.

I've not only been reading, I've been reading almost enough to justify the meme posting. Score!

What I finished:
Guards, Guards! by Terry Pratchett, which I'd not read before. I wasn't emotionally engaged as such, but it was an absolute pleasure reading this, and watching it unfold and then all come together. Pratchett had really started to hit his stride here, and it shows, glowingly, compared to, say, Mort, where the seeds were there, but not quite cohesive.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik. One of the three Hugo-nominated novels that made it through my Amazon-sample-chapter sample reading. I'll probably put all of those in a separate Hugo-reading post at some point.

What I'm reading now:
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Second of the three Hugo novels. 70 pages in and so far, wheeeee.

What's next:
Seveneves is going to keep me busy well into next week, if not all of next week (800+ pages, oof. I'm budgeting for at least a week of reading/350 pages, then reconsidering). But The fifth season by N. K. Jemisin when I do get there.