Skip to main content

What I read: January 2023



"The Cartographers" by Peng Shepherd.  This fantasy novel about maps was definitely written just for me. And maybe also for my sister who bought it for me for Christmas but didn't have a chance to read it before she gave it to me. I went to a hoop class and was reading it in the waiting area, and one of my classmates asked what I was so engrossed in, and I totally shilled for it. 

LHC #197: "The final revival of Opal and Nev" by Dawnie Walton. I few days ago I was watching a political pundit being interviewed on the news presumably in her home or office, and she had this book on her shelf. Anyway, it started off like far too many things I've read lately, but took an interesting turn. There's a great scene where one character tells another "so, you got me fired from my dream job" and the other one doesn't really care. 

LHC #198: "The View from the Ground" by Martha Gellhorn. No idea why this was on the list, but it's interesting nevertheless. These essays are each a product of their time, so for example the one about Britain preparing badly for war in 1938 is delightful in what it doesn't know. And because the author is a woman journalist, it has a tone slightly different than the standard. She was ranting about gun violence in the 60's, so it's not a new thing. 

LHC #199: "A memory called Empire" by Arkady Martine. Hard copy because the eBook wait was 13 weeks. For some reason I thought this was going to be challenging to read, but I read a lot of it on the bus! Totally my jam. 

LHC #200: "Gideon the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir. Audiobook, because I have that sweater I have to look at to knit, and because the audio book had no wait while the eBook had 13 weeks wait (and I already had two hard copy books I was reading). One day on the bus I saw someone reading book three of the series and I accosted her about her fantastic taste and she's probably thinking that's her bad TTC experience and I'm a crazy person now, but whatever. 

Popular posts from this blog

Best TW feedback ever

Over at the dayjob, SMEs are feverishly trying to get documents back to me all marked up, in preparation for the release that's supposed to happen the week I'm back from VP. Today's best comment: Unfortunately not true. SMEs, they're so cute.

What I read: January 2024

"Morgan is my name" by Sophie Keech. Office book club selection. It gets exhausting to read about plucky young heroines who are terrible at needlework all the time. I should probably read some Jo Walton. I mean, you can be good at needlework and other things too! I didn't find this book very surprising. The first half was kind of boring, but it got better towards the end.  LHC #233: "The Shifter" by Janice Hardy. I read her writing advice website regularly, so I thought I should maybe read an actual book to find out if she was worth it. Oh my, the voice of this book grabbed me immediately. The worldbuilding seemed shady but the voice was solid. It wasn't very subtle, but I might not be the target audience.  LHC #234: "Ragnarok: The End of the Gods" by A. S. Byatt. At this point with my library account, I'm just guessing. I know there was something by Byatt there? I suspect there was. I did not know what to make of this book. Strange, but it w

What I read: March 2024

  LHC #240: "Vita Nostra" by  Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko. Translated by Julia Meitov Hersey. All I knew going in was dark academia. This was a neat thing to read after A Deadly Education last month. The students can leave this school at summer and winter break, but maybe they shouldn't. Also, interesting education method, providing Sasha with a CD player and punishing her if she leaves it in the mode where it plays all the tracks in sequence.  "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman. When I finished Ragnarok by AS Byatt (last month? January?) I was thinking it might have made more sense if I had any knowledge of the subject matter. The boy had left this lying around, and it was not a tough read.  LHC #241: "Science on a mission: How Military funding shaped what we do and don't know about the ocean" by Naomi Oreskes.  I deferred this once because it was so long. History of science is challenging for me to read, because of the need to get a grasp on dispr