Tag: wednesday reads

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Wednesday Reads/Listens: Catch Up Post

Welcome to Wednesday Reads/Listens!  It’s been a hot moment since I did one of these.   So here you go!

What I’ve Been Reading:

The Only Harmless Great Thing – Brooke Bolander

Everyone read this book. Everyone read this book and then come talk to me about it. Because this is a slim but majestic book that will leave you breathless with the delight of the prose.

The Sumage Solution – by Gail Carriger

Oh this was a delight and I cannot wait for the next one. The worldbuilding is great and the characterization is delightful and I super love the way that she builds her stories

Omega Required – Dessa Lux

The first novel length story from this author and I looove this one. I love her worldbuilding and her shifters and just the amount of sleep I lost over this book cause I couldn’t stop reading it. I really hope there are like 20 sequels to this.

The City Born Great – N.K. Jemisin
A short story but an AMAZING one. Definitely pick this one up. It’s hard to describe, but definitely worth the time.

Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey –

Oh. OH. This translation is everything I wanted and never knew I needed.

A Queen From The North – Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese

This was absolutely delightful – an alternate universe of England where everything is just a little to the left and it’s positively awesome.

The Brightest Fell – Seanan McGuire

It’s okay. I didn’t need my heart. Totally fine.

A whole lot of Ursula K. LeGuin essays and books and stories- but that’s going to have to be a separate post.

And a whole bunch of fanfic and news articles.  Poke me if you want some of those links!

What I’ve Been Listening To (podcasts that make me scream in delight, send shivers down my spine, tickle me because of the sheer meta levels of NERD, and generally give me A Strong Emotion):

Steal The Stars – a wholly interesting audio drama full of twists and turns and some excellent character moments. Protagonist is female and completely kick ass.  This is the inaugural podcast of Tor Labs and it’s weird and quirky and I sort of want to know more and I sort of am happy with where they left it.

Ars Paradoxica – This continues to delight and thrill me and I’m going to be sad when it ends. Featuring an ace female protagonist!!!  Also time travel,  so much weird, small government towns, and a Partridge in a pair tree.

The Bright Sessions – OH this one is so good. SO GOOD and I am sad to see it ending too even if there are more spinoffs planned.  Just SO much emotional connection to these characters and their stories and just OMG.  I remain forever emotionally compromised by this show and I welcome it because it’s brilliant and just so amazing.

Tanis/The Last Movie/The Black Tapes/Rabbits – how much do I love these? Let me count the ways. I love the plotting and the craft and the everything. I love that I am incredibly terrified that one of these days I will actually have to listen to Nic Silver die over the radio because his reporter dumb can’t stop touching the thing. MK is amazing. I have serious qualms about Alex’s ethical boundaries and I super love the messiness of it all.  I feel for Strand.   I adore Carly Parker so hardcore.   I love how they captured the weird spooky feeling you get when you visit some places in the Pacific Northwest.

I’m pretty sure all four are connected and it’s gonna end with them accidentally raising an Elder God ( I could go on, but then we verge into spoiler territory).

Casefile True Crime – this is sincerely the best true crime podcast out there. I love the host, the music, the research they put into everything. It’s amazing.  ESPECIALLY the series about the Night Stalker/East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer.

The FBI Basement – recaps of the X-Files from the beginning with a whole host of hysterical characters. I love the nerdery involved and all the details they mention and just everything.

Why Is This Happening – Chris Hayes’ new podcast and it’s awesome. It’s SO worth it. He covers some amazing topics and it’s great to hear him and the experts he talks to break down the subject matter into easily understandable chunks.

I will stop there for the evening.  But hey, if you’ve read any of these books or listened to any of these podcasts, come chat with me!   I’d love to hear what other people think of any of the above.

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Wednesday’s Child Is Full of Woe

In between work, health issues, and running around everywhere, I’ve been reading.

I’ve finished Unstoppable- the Joe Ledger Anthology and then also the latest Joe Ledger book, Dogs of War.

I’ve started The King in Yellow and Old Man’s War and I’ve finished a re-read of Kushiel’s Dart and A Wrinkle In Time, both of which were comfort reads during some of the more interesting days lately.

It’s always fun when you are perpetually dealing with the effects of a chronic illness. Though that’s a blog post for another day.

I’ve also started reading more of the Ursula K. Le Guin I own and I plan to buy what I don’t. So reading and re-reading those and plotting out how to acquire the rest. I am terribly sad that I won’t ever get to meet her now, on this side of the beyond. I came to her works later on, they weren’t part of my childhood mythologies and histories. I was introduced to them by a very dear friend of mine in my late teens-early twenties and it was a revelation.

She was everything that I had been looking for and never known what to ask for, and I’m unendingly grateful to my friend who gave me one of her books and said “read this.” Said friend of mine has done this for me a number of times, introduced me to authors and artists and films that always blow open my mind and horizons and make me think. Everyone should have a friend like this.

I’m still working through what it means to be in a world without the Great Lady who has inspired so many of us. Who was a shining beacon to so many of us.

So that’s where my brain is at the moment. Hopefully, your worlds and lives are well.

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Wednesday Reads (On Thursday)

Because I like to be a rebel and Wednesday was  full of preparations for this early Thursday morning and also troubleshooting cable issues ( apparently all the channels decided to change and that disrupted a lot of things).

So what am I reading, what have I currently read, and what’s still upcoming from the To Read Pile?

Well, glad you asked.

What I’m Reading:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel – which has been recommended to me by many places and people and I am happy to report that they were all correct. This book is fascinating for many reasons. It will draw you in with the dialogue and ease of reading and keep you by the narration of the life and viewpoint of a very well known man in one of British history’s most well known periods. The prose is captivating and Hilary Mantel weaves the historical details into a narrative that is easily understood. I haven’t yet seen the PBS Masterpiece Special they’ve based on this, but if they’re true to the book, then it will be fantastic I’m sure.

Fading Suns: RPG book – because this will factor into Christmas gifts and I am making sure that I am familiar with the system and requirements so that modules can be built.   I’m dipping more into GMing which will be fun.

What I’ve Finished:

The second Mitch Rapp book, (chronologically) Kill Shot by Vince Flynn was a hell of a sequel to American Assassin. Mitch gets himself into and out of trouble with a little bit of help from Irene and Thomas and we see Stan Hurley and our good old friend Victor again. It was overall a fairly satisfying read and I’ll be fascinated to see if this is the next Flynn novel to get movie treatment.  I have a lot more feelings about this book, but they are all massively spoileriffic so if you’ve read it,  poke me in the comments and we can flail over it together.

Church Refugees by Ashleigh Hope and Josh Packard

This was an interesting book that I was reading, partly for research and partly for personal reasons.  It’s amazing and also painful.   It talks about the Dones, people who are followers of a certain religious path that are for one reason or another, done with the Church as the institution we are familiar with, but not done with their faith. It takes a sociological look at this phenomenon  and though both contributors are themselves believers in this religion, they try and minimize their internal bias to only focus on the data gathered.  Their academic and scientific standards have been top notch and I want to throw this book at every pastor and missionary I know.   Because I believe it will be that helpful, because I think it will be able to express things in a way that will make sense and be better able to communicate why precisely there are a lot of people leaving the church in order to serve God more.

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie’s amazing novel about a murder on a train and the detective who has to solve the mystery while the train is stuck in the snow. One of the more interesting character novels, as it provides a great insight into Hercule Poirot’s mindset and personal set of ethics.

What’s Next:

Old Man’s War – my first Scalzi novel! I’m excited to read this.

The King in Yellow – Robert Chambers – this one is for research purposes, but I am so curious about it.  I’ve heard so much about it here and there.

What are you reading?   Share in the comments!

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Wednesday Reads:

Welcome to Wednesday Reads.

Ahsoka (cover of the novel taken from Amazon)

Currently I am working my way through E.K. Johnston’s Ahsoka book (available here)  and it’s a delight so far.  I really love her character and I was very excited to get my hands on this.  My friend Bryan recommended it to me (you can find his stuff here) and so far I have not been disappointed.

I’ve recently finished Garrett Investigates by Elizabeth Bear, a short story compendium of Abby Irene shorts.  It’s a fantastic universe and I definitely recommend it if you can get your hands on it.   I’ve also finished American Assassin by Vince Flynn,  The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle,  The Alpha’s Home by Dessa Lux, and The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. LeGuin.

More reviews about those to come.   Currently on my reading list after I finish Ahsoka is New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear,  State of Fear by Michael Crichton,  and Shadows over Baker Street – an anthology mixing Sherlock Holmes and the Cthulhu mythos.

What are you reading?  Tell me in the comments!

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