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ninja-muse · 28 days

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March was a productive month, and not just because I read a good number of books. I also started writing again after a bit of a slump, and I managed to unhaul 37 books from my home library, though some of them have not actually left the house yet. The used bookstore I went to didn't take everything so I have to decide which one I'm hitting next. Or if I'm dumping the bulk on a thrift store because let's be honest, most used bookstores aren't going to want what's left either.

Can you tell I got rid of that many? Only if you saw the state of things before. My shelves are neat and tidy with no books wedged on top of other books to make things fit.

And I was so, so close to ending the month without buying more books! I really thought I was going to manage it! And then, well, I mentioned the used bookstore, right? I've been meaning to read Delaney but few bookstores stock him, and Lincoln's Dreams is one of the only Connie Willis novels I don't own. (That shop also had stickers, and a cute bookmark I can't show you because whiting out the identifying features would ruin the effect.) Under the Smokestrewn Sky was a rescue, of sorts. Why return it to the publisher when you could just buy it, right?

Anyway, in terms of books read, there were some really good ones! And only one that was not so great. I think I'm done reading and collecting Rat Queens and might need to include those in the next unhaul. And don't get me wrong about the Evie Dunmore. It is a Good Historical Romance Novel. There's just something about it that didn't work for me.

Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.

I Love Russia - Elena Kostyuchenko, translated by Bela Shayevich and Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse

Portraits and memories of the unsung Russia—the poor, the broken, the marginalized.

10/10

🏳️‍🌈 author

warnings: so many, including but not limited to misogyny, homophobia, genocide, violence, sexual violence, drugs and alcohol, abuse, child death, suicide

reading copy

True North - Andrew J. Graff

The Brechts move to Michigan to restart a rafting business. They hope it’ll save their family, but it might do the opposite.

7.5/10

Menominee secondary character

library book

Sociopath - Patric Gagne

As a child, Patric knew something about her was off and kept countering a lack of feeling with dark acts. As a young woman, she learns the definition of “sociopath” and it changes everything. Out in April.

8/10

neurodivergent author

To a Darker Shore - Leanne Schwartz

When the invention that should have guaranteed Alesta's future fails, her best friend takes the fall and is sacrificed to the demon besieging their kingdom. To rescue him, Alesta must descend into hell, where she learns truths about her society—and her gods. Out in April.

8/10

fat protagonist, autistic main character, major autistic secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters, autistic author

warning: classism, strict religion, autism-related ableism

reading copy

The Temple of Fortuna - Elodie Harper

Amara’s living as a courtesan in Rome but misses her lover and daughter in Pompeii. When she returns to the city, her needs and desires are sent into turmoil—and Vesuvius has started to rumble.

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic), Ethiopian secondary characters

warning: misogynist society, sexual violence, slave society

Funny Story - Emily Henry

What do you do when your partners dump you for each other? Move in together, of course! Out in April.

7.5/10

Iranian-American secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic)

warning: toxic relationships, mainly in backstory

reading copy

Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan

Tired of fulling expectations, Yeongju opens a bookshop. She’s not the only one to find happiness there.

7.5/10

Korean cast, Korean author

library ebook

Aftermarket Afterlife - Seanan McGuire

The Covenant has started actively pursuing the Prices and their allies, and all Mary wants to do is protect her family.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (lesbian, gay, bi man), Korean-American secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author

warning: canon-typical violence, bigots

library ebook

Knife Skills for Beginners - Orlando Murrin

Paul Delamare is filling in for a friend at a cooking school when a body is found on the premises.

6.5/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (gay), Black British secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

reading copy

Let Them Tremble - Wolf Epley

The revolution is brewing and both the workers and the government refuse bend. Throw in a destroyed print shop, ghosts, and malfunctioning Shroud devices, and you know things won’t end well.

7/10

major disabled character (partial blindness, limp, hand disfigurement), cast largely of non-racialized colour

won/digital reading copy

The Gentleman’s Gambit - Evie Dunmore

Catriona needs to avoid distractions to write her book but is pressed to help her father’s new colleague around Oxford. Elias needs her help if he ever hopes to smuggle antiquities out of the Ashmolean.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (bi woman), Lebanese love interest, Lebanese secondary character

warning: colonial/orientalist characters

library book

Rat Queens, Vol. 5 - Kurtis J. Wiebe with Owen Gieni (illustrator)

Palisade’s problems continue, including hallucinations, a hipster bar, and a sinister wizard.

6/10

major Black character, major 🏳️‍🌈 character (lesbian), 🇨🇦

off my TBR shelves

Children’s Books

Penelope Rex and the Problem with Pets - Ryan Higgins

Mittens hogs the bed, eats from the trash, and causes all kinds of trouble—and Penelope didn’t even want them!

Currently reading

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle

Robert doesn’t want to be the country’s dragon exterminator on the best of days, but then Princess Cerise meets Prince Reginald. Out in May.

reading copy

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin

A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle

Victorian detective stories

disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters

warning: racism, colonialism

Monthly total: 12 Yearly total: 32 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 1 Books by women: 8 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 3 ARCs acquired: 5 ARCs unhauled: 7 DNFs: 0

January February

#booklr #bookblr #book recommendations #book recs #reading wrap-ups #read in 2024 #my photos

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indelibleevidence · 4 years

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Favorite book?

You can’t just ask someone what their favourite book is without any reference to genre! :p

The thing that makes me laugh is that everyone assumes that since I can (kinda) write, I must have read all the classics, and all the stuff that’s touted as the next big thing. Which is completely wrong. I actually HATE the classics, and things that spend three million years setting up a scene before something actually happens send me to sleep.

As a kid, I read pretty much everything in the children’s section of the library that I was interested in, and then started nosing around the adults’ shelves for things to read. Since the kids’ section didn’t really have many classics, I just graduated on to adults’ genre fiction, and that’s where I’ve stuck, really.

Something that’s interesting to me is that as I’ve grown up, going back to those adults’ books I loved as a kid has resulted in me throwing the book across the room, because I now see the horrendous descriptions of female characters’ appearances, and the way they don’t really have any purpose in the narrative other than ‘love interest’ or ‘secretary who might make the occasional relevant observation’ or ‘villain’s love interest who puts up with domestic violence to show that the villain is bad’. The feminist in me can’t deal with most pre-millennium male authors these days (and to be honest, a lot of post-millennium male authors, either).

I get the feeling that none of my favourites are in genres you would actually like, @lurkingwhump (with the possible exception of crime), but you opened the box, now I have to go inside...

Some of my favourite books that spring to mind (but this is by no means an exhaustive list):

Horror: The Newsflesh series by Mira Grant (including the short fiction, because it’s fantastic), the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong (which was turned into TV show, Bitten, which totally wasn’t as good, but the first season was pretty cool), The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey.

Urban Fantasy: The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire (who also writes as Mira Grant for her horror stuff), Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series (Kate’s love interest, Curran, is like my ultimate book boyfriend, OMG).

Sci-Fi: The Sentients of Orion series by Marianne de Pierres (her Parris Plessis trilogy is also great, but is more of a dystopian post-apocalyptic thing than a space opera), the Innkeeper books by Ilona Andrews (kind of straddles sci-fi and urban fantasy).

Apocalypse-is-Nearing Science-Focused Kinda Atlantis Apocalypse Thing: I can’t think of a word for this genre, but Deception by Stel Pavlou is a great book.

Fantasy: Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician trilogy, the Kushiel books by Jacqueline Carey.

Crime/Thriller: Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series, Karen Rose’s books (but it does annoy me how all of her heroines - even the one who supposedly can’t conceive a child - end up Married and Pregnant by the time they’re mentioned in subsequent books).

Erotic Romance: Kit Rocha’s ‘Beyond’ series (which is a better post-apocalyptic dystopia than most I’ve read, plus has some great kinky smut, threesomes, polyamory - but it’s all character relevant and most importantly, respectfully romantic with consent... *happy sigh*), Aurelia T. Evans’ Sanctuary series (which I actually selected for publication and edited as part of my old day job - werewolves, dog-shifters and vampires, oh my!), Cherise Sinclair’s Shadowlands books (curvy heroines discovering kink with very hot, consent-focused Doms).

Young Adult: ANYTHING BY TAMORA PIERCE, but especially her Tortall series (start with the Song of the Lioness quartet). The His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. The Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld is very cool. LJ Smith’s Forbidden Game series is a lot of fun too, but I first read it when I was a kid, so nostalgia might be giving me rose-tinted glasses.

Mental Health Memoir: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen.

This is why you can’t ask me what my favourite book is. :p

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booksboxesandbaubles · 7 years

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Today we bring you Lost in a Story’s meme Down the TBR Hole! Where you bring up your Goodreads list, order your books in ascending by date added, then decide if you are keeping or dropping the first five listed based on their description!

Sorry this is coming out so late today guys, Neko is a slacker… On with the show!

Kayla:

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews – I’ve heard too much about this author to even consider taking this off my list. Keep!

Dead in the Water by Hailey Edwards – This is a spinoff of another book that I apparently read and didn’t enjoy. I’m dropping this.

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire – This sounds interesting but I’m not sure. I think I’ll keep it. I love my crime shows and I love my urban fantasy books and this seems to be both. Worth a shot :)

Monster by Carmen Caine – So I’m not really sure waht this book is about but everyone I know has loved it so I’m keeping it.

Whirl an Ondine Quartet Novel by Emma Raveling – I know a lot of people who really enjoyed this book, however I’ve picked this up and put it down countless times at this point and I think I’m going to just drop it. Maybe I’ll add it again in the future.

Kept 3, Dropped 2.

Neko:

Call the Nurse: True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle by Mary J. MacLeod – Total keeper, love stories about patients and how nurses deal with being a nurse. Keep

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey – I have no clue why I want to read this book so much. I just really do. Keep.

The Sandman, Volume #1 Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman – This sounds fantastic, I love a good treasure hunt turned questing! Not to mention the main idea is fantastic. Keep.

The Lady in the Tower, Queens of England #4 by Jean Plaidy – Love Plaidy, love Anne Boleyn. Nuff said. Keep.

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives – Again Anne Boleyn=keep. Lots more lovely Anne coming next Friday I’m afraid… Keep

Kept: 5 Dropped: 0 And Neko fails again… Maybe I just pick really good books…

So what do you guys think? Does Neko just pick really good books or is she a hoarder? What books did you drop and which did you keep?

Down the TBR Hole! Yup, Neko failed to drop any books again, check out Kayla's reads! Today we bring you Lost in a Story’s meme Down the TBR Hole! Where you bring up your Goodreads list, order your books in ascending by date added, then decide if you are keeping or dropping the first five listed based on their description!

#Fantasy #History

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