#and a becky chambers book in my kindle

[areyoudoingthis]

i truly hate the 2022 lottery of is it my allergies? is it pms? is it the flu? is it covid? is it a brand new species gestating in my body like a freaking alien? who knows! pick a number and see

#i have every single booster shot i truly hate the world right now #get vaccinated you fucking assholes we can't keep doing this dance forever #I'm sneezing in front of the next person that tells me they only got one or two shots and won't bother anymore #it feels like the flu but i have a fever and i rarely get fevers anymore #at least I'm on vacation so I'm in bed with one cat on top of me the other one snuggled against me a colony sim playing in the background #and a becky chambers book in my kindle #and I'm not going anywhere #i love how pets know when you're sick and they just plop themselves on top of you with the absolute confidence that it will fix everything #you're right baby you're warm and soft and purry and your nose is pink #alex txt #send cat food i needed to go grocery shopping

[scifimagpie]

Hey Tumblr, Queer Found Family Space Opera Book? *LIMITED TIME - FREE, GAY BOOK*

Oct 26th - *Edit to edit* I reopened the giveaway. 7/20 copies are claimed, so you have another shot at grabbing The Meaning Wars (book 3, see below) FOR FREE! Oct 25th - *Edit* The giveaway period for the promo has ended! However, the omnibus - including books 1-5, the complete story - is available on Amazon on Nov 10th. If you're short on funds, message me, because I'm also in need of reviews for that!

The omnibus

Check out the gorgeous cover.

advised.

And if you're more of a binge reader, you might be into the omnibus, which will be out November 10th.

Amazon.com: The Meaning Wars Complete Omnibus: A Queer Space Opera eBook : Browne, Michelle , Kyselova, Kateryna: Kindle Store

Two best friends looking for love.

An oppressive interstellar government.

Adulthood has never been so stressful...

For the first time, all five books in The Meaning Wars are united as a complete collection. In this queer space opera featuring a diverse cast, a found family navigates the politics of revolution and freedom.

Join Crystal, a wormhole engineer, and Sarah, an English Literature graduate with a chip on her shoulder, as they try to find romance and friendship - while an oppressive interstellar government watches their every move.

As Crystal deals with her faltering marriage, Sarah makes risky career decisions - by doing what's morally right. Running from the surveillance state of the Human Conglomerate, will the Interfederation's multi-species alliance prove their salvation? A crew of old friends and a union of renegade space pirates may be their way out. But first, they have to save rebel icon Patience Ngouabi from arrest and certain torture - and make sure they all get out alive.

Fans of Ruthanna Emrys' A Half-Built Garden and Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series will love the cosy yet intense adventures of this crew of misfits fighting for political and social justice.

So yeah, please take a look at it. It's full of gay, diverse characters, there's disability and mental health rep, and the protagonists are in their thirties, rather than being fresh-faced teenagers. (There's nothing wrong with fresh-faced teen protagonists, but it's nice to read about life after age 25 sometimes.)

*Original post*

So like most indie authors, I'm in dire need of reviews - and I'm also trying to get some eyeballs before I release the omnibus edition of my soon-to-be-finished series.

It's a queer, found family space opera about politics and trying to do the right thing while falling in love (and dodging a massive, oppressive interstellar government).

It's basically tailor-made for you, Tumblr. Because I love you.

The best jumping-on point is actually book 3, and that's the freebie!

Grab it here: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/LkNADD9I

Worlds collide and peace shatters in Book 3 of The Meaning Wars…

On the way to a new wormhole-building gig, Crystal and her husband Jai fight over the future of their family. But the safe haven of their base is paradise compared to Pluto. Recovering from her imprisonment, Sarah and her cousin Toby try to scrape their lives back together and stay out of trouble on the icy planetoid. Rebel leader Patience Ngouabi's actions have triggered a growing insurrection on the colony planet of Indus, and the shock waves have reached even the Solar system's worlds. Both Crystal and Sarah will have to decide between uneasy peace and constant danger - if they get to choose at all.

Content advisory: this book contains references to abuse, sexual scenes, torture, and mental health issues. Reader discretion is advised.

And if you're more of a binge reader, you might be into the omnibus, which will be out November 10th.

Two best friends looking for love.

An oppressive interstellar government.

Adulthood has never been so stressful...

For the first time, all five books in The Meaning Wars are united as a complete collection. In this queer space opera featuring a diverse cast, a found family navigates the politics of revolution and freedom.

Join Crystal, a wormhole engineer, and Sarah, an English Literature graduate with a chip on her shoulder, as they try to find romance and friendship - while an oppressive interstellar government watches their every move.

As Crystal deals with her faltering marriage, Sarah makes risky career decisions - by doing what's morally right. Running from the surveillance state of the Human Conglomerate, will the Interfederation's multi-species alliance prove their salvation? A crew of old friends and a union of renegade space pirates may be their way out. But first, they have to save rebel icon Patience Ngouabi from arrest and certain torture - and make sure they all get out alive.

Fans of Ruthanna Emrys' A Half-Built Garden and Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series will love the cosy yet intense adventures of this crew of misfits fighting for political and social justice.

So yeah, please take a look at it. It's full of gay, diverse characters, there's disability and mental health rep, and the protagonists are in their thirties, rather than being fresh-faced teenagers. (There's nothing wrong with fresh-faced teen protagonists, but it's nice to read about life after age 25 sometimes.)

Enjoy, please share/reblog, and let me know if you grab a copy/copies!

Edit: it is free on kindle until Oct 25th!

#queer #space opera #sci fi #scifi #gay #lesbian #bisexual #polyamory #science fiction #polyam #writing #indie #publishing #politics #lgbtq #oc #booktok #tiktok #scifimagpie #michelle browne #author #writer

[somerabbitholes]

Yesss I have updates!! The Kindle arrived on 12th, I got home after an exam and it was already here which was a nice surprise ✨ so far I have downloaded some classics and series which I didn't have the space to buy! Already getting my money's worth XD

I'm looking forward to reading To Be Taught If Fortunate by Becky Chambers, Diary of a Void, In Memoriam, and some Mary Westmacott books that my friend recommended. I downloaded Anne of Green Gables series too which was a childhood favourite that I'm excited to re read. The same friend also sent some books directly to my Kindle email, that's such an amazing feature!

I also got a couple of books that were on my list for years but I couldn't find in local stores! Please send some recommendations if you think of anything based on my eclectic reading style 💖

~ Kindle anon

that's exciting! i'm glad you're enjoying it so far! i don't have specific recommendations for you based on your current list, but i recommend beartown by fredrik backman and the lonely city by olivia laing wherever i go

#anonymous #answered #kindle

[infamousbrad]

“But if there’s no penalty for debt, what’s to stop you from taking without giving back?” “It’s a bad feeling,” Dex said. “Everybody has a negative balance from time to time, for lots of reasons. That’s fine. That’s part of the ebb and flow. But if someone had a huge negative … well, that says they need help. Maybe they’re sick. Or stuck. Maybe they’ve got something going on at home. Or maybe it’s just one of those times when they need other people to carry them for a while. That’s okay. Everybody ends up there sometimes. If I saw a friend’s balance and it was way in the red, I’d make a point of checking in.” “You can see other people’s balances?” “Yeah, of course. It’s all public.” “Does that not get competitive?” Dex squinted. “Why would it?”

Chambers, Becky. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot) (pp. 35-36). Tor Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I've been saying for years -- like, a lot of years -- that nobody's life, liberty, or property is safe if anybody is so poor that they have nothing to lose, or if anybody is so rich that they're above the law.

So add this to my favorite details about the Pangan post-scarcity solarpunk ecotopia in Becky Chambers' "Monk and Robot" series: if you keep getting poorer, or if you keep getting richer, if it doesn't all average out over the long run? They treat it as something wrong with you. And not even something to blame you for, just something you need help with. Probably medical or mental health help with. That's adorable. It's awesome. When can we have something this nice?

Another book I keep begging people to read is Robert Frank's Richistan, which is basically a travelogue documenting the weird social mores and quirky customs of the people who are so rich that they for all practical purposes live as if they were in an entirely separate country from the rest of us.

And one of the main things that Frank tries to get across about the Upper Richistanis, the people on or around the Forbes 400 list, is that they are entirely post-economic. If there is more than one of something and they want it, not only do they not have to ask the price, they usually don't even have to ask for the object: they have a full-time staff whose job is to figure out in advance everything their employer could conceivably ask for and pre-position it, ready to hand, every place their employer goes.

But today's Upper Richistanis are, to an extent never seen before among global wealthy elites, hard-working as all hell, at least the half of them who didn't marry into it or inherit it are. They are obsessed with making more money, and more, and more. Like Johnny Rocko in Key Largo, they can't imagine ever having enough. Why not? In their case, because it's how they settle the argument about who's the smartest, who's the best. It's no longer about what could they buy or own or use or control, it's pure status competition.

Which, to my taste, makes them as sick in the head as any lead-poisoned gunslinger with C-PSTD running around with an organized crime gang as if that were the best way to pay their bills. Upper Richistanis aren't well. There is literally something wrong with them. They need help, man.

#monk and robot #becky chambers #a prayer for the crown shy #social democracy #robert frank #richistan

[libertyreads]

February Wrap Up--

In February, despite a crazy work schedule, I managed to complete 10 books for a total of 3,153 pages. That's about 112 pages per day. I still don't feel like I'm pressuring myself to read which is great, but I still find myself struggling with reading fewer books per month. My goal for the year was between 52 and 100 books which means less than 8 books per month. So far I've read 14 books in January and 10 books in February. But it's a little progress so I'll take it.

Comics/Graphic Novels-- 1. Low Vol. 1: The Delirium of Hope by Rick Remender--2 stars.

Novellas/Short Stories-- 1. A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers--3.75 stars.

Novels-- 1. Make a Wish by Helena Hunting (New Release)-- 3.5 stars.

2. Traitor's Blade by Sebastien De Castell (Kindle)--3.25 stars.

3. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith--3.75 stars.

4. Greymist Fair by Francesca Zappia (NetGalley)-- 4.25 stars.

5. The Magic Misfits by Neil Patrick Harris-- 3 stars.

6. Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu (NetGalley)--3.75 stars.

7. The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons--4 stars.

8. The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren--4.25 stars.

Average rating for the month: 3.55 stars which feels like a bit of an improvement. And I'm so excited for the books I'm planning on reading in March.

#February wrap up #books read in 2023 #2023 reading challenge #goodreads challenge #goodreads #monthly wrap up #wrap up #bookish #booklr #bookstagram #books

[strugglinguist]

January's Books

I've been thinking it might be fun to do a month-by-month look at the books I've read and thoughts about them. I read a whopping 12 books in January! This is a mix of winter break energy plus getting lots of Audible credits for Christmas.

Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor

Martyr's Promise by Elizabeth Hunter

A Catalogue of Catastrophe by Jodi Taylor

Paladin's Kiss by Elizabeth Hunter

Once & Future by Cory McCarthy & A.R. Capetta

Sword in the Stars by Cory McCarthy & A.R. Capetta

Doing Time by Jodi Taylor

Hard Time by Jodi Taylor

White Fragility by Dr. Robin DiAngelo

A Psalm of the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Saving Time by Jodi Taylor

About Time by Jodi Taylor

I've provided in-depth thoughts below :)

I finished a re-read of Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series. This is one of my all-time favorites, and it was a joy to read again. Also on Audible, the voice actor who reads them is one of my favorites. Hands down. She does great voices for each of the characters. By the end of the first or second book in the series, she has them down so well that you know who is speaking immediately.

I then read the the 2nd and 3rd novels in the Elemental Covenant series by Elizabeth Hunter. I'm really digging this new series and cannot wait for the next one to release! Elizabeth's world building is amazing, and I have read every single book in her Elemental world. That's 17 books, 8 novellas, and a short story, by the way. Can't recommend her work enough. She also has a few other series that I love like The Irin Chronicles and The Cambio Springs Series.

On the recommendation of my girlfriend, I picked up Once & Future and Sword in the Stars by Cory McCarthy and A.R. Capetta. They were a really fun sci-fi/fantasy YA experience about a reincarnation of the Arthurian legend. Arthur as a lesbian in space plus time travel? It was queer and nerdy and all around wonderful. I loved it!

I then dug back into Jodi Taylor's writing with her spin-off series about the Time Police from the St. Mary's world. The four books were seriously wonderful. I loved learning about each of the main characters. Jodi is also very good at getting me invested to the point that I find myself openly weeping over her stories. I really hope more books come out in that series.

Two more books! I read White Fragility by Dr. Robin DiAngelo. Well... most of it. I still have about an hour of listening. I definitely did a lot of chewing on ideas and reactions to this one. She does well as encapsulating the stumbling blocks to genuine conversations about race because of how White people are socialized. I think it's worth reading as a White person, which is the intended audience, but I think a Black American or other People of Color would find it elementary and waste of time for them.

Finally, a college friend recommended A Psalm of the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers and sent me a Kindle version. It is such a beautiful story about what it means to be alive and worthy. It's a sci-fi book about a future where robots have become sentient and chose to leave humanity behind to learn about the world, and humans have made due without that technology since. A human and a robot meet and go on a journey together learning about one another and life. It hit me right in the feels several times!

#reading #reader #January books #sci fi #fantasy #YA books #Elizabeth Hunter #Jodi Taylor #Cory McCarthy #AR Capetta #Robin DiAngelo #Becky Chambers #book review #book recommendations #books

[ladyherenya]

A good month for reading! Despite November’s demands and deadlines, it didn’t turn into a repeat of last November (when I apparently didn’t have the headspace for reading) nor of some of 2022′s more stressful months (when I didn’t have the headspace for some of my favourite genres and instead mostly subsisted on contemporary romance).

Total: Ten novels (including two audiobooks), one novella and one picture book.

Still reading: The Swallows’ Flight by Hilary McKay, Naughty Dragons Try School! by Natalie Jane Prior and Ten Thousand Stitches by Olivia Atwater.

My favourites: Sarah Morris Remembers (interesting, poignant and enjoyable), The Codebreaker’s Secret (vivid relationships and scenery) and Half a Soul (delightful and satisfyingly not fluffy).

I’d also recommend: Any of these, really -- if one likes their respective genres. (Some of them didn’t appeal so much to me but I’m chalking that up to a me-thing.)

Cover thoughts: I like the cover for A Prayer for the Crown-Shy.

Titles, authors, genres and ratings listed below, with links to my reviews on LibraryThing.

Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas. Sixth Charlotte Holmes mystery, following on from Murder on Cold Street. Set in Victorian England. 3☆

Sarah Morris Remembers by D.E. Stevenson (narrated by Patience Tomlinson). A coming-of-age novel about growing up in England the 30s and working in London during WWII. 3½☆

Ex Appeal by Cathy Yardley. Contemporary romance, same series as Love, Comment, Subscribe and Gouda Friends.

Naughty Dragons Make Trouble! by Natalie Jane Prior (illustrated by Simon Howe). Children's fantasy about fostering two dragons. 3½☆

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell. Science-fiction. Military space opera with telepathy. 3½☆

Skyward: the story of female pilots in WWII by Sally Deng. Fictionalised-nonfiction picture book. 3½☆

The Codebreaker's Secret by Sara Ackerman. Historical mystery set in Hawaii, about a code breaker in 1943 and a journalist in 1965. 3½☆

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater. Romantic regency fantasy. 3½☆

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers. Science-fiction novella about a robot and a tea monk. Sequel to A Psalm for the Wild-Built. 3☆

Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade. Companion-sequel to Spoiler Alert and All the Feels. Fandom-y contemporary romance. 3☆

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon. Young adult fiction about a summer working for her family's wedding business. 3☆

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl. Romantic historical fiction set in a (fictional?) coastal English community. 3☆

#Herenya reviews books

[chapterchapterbook]

Mid-Year Book Tag

No one tagged me, but I saw this going around and have been meaning to do some version of a mid-year check-in. SOOO I'm doing this myself!

📚 Number of books you’ve read so far: 40! I'm honestly shocked I've read so much. Grad school and work were killing me for a while, so I never thought that I would get here but am nervous about the crash in the fall.

💫 Best book you’ve read so far: Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling! A Netgalley catch-up that I'm so disappointed I didn't read sooner.

🌎 Best sequel you’ve read so far: Record of a Spaceborn Few and The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers! Every book in this series has made me cry. I hope she continues to add to it because I want every part of this weird space family to be happy.

🔥 New release you haven’t read yet, but want to: Under Her Care by Lucinda Berry!

⏳ Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: I'll be honest, I'm very out of touch for when books release. I'm sure there is something else that is releasing later on that I'm more excited about but *shrugs*. Looking at a list of horror books being released this year, They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe looks pretty good!

💝 Biggest surprise favorite new author (debut or new to you): Meg Ellison! I've had The Book of the Unnamed Midwife on my kindle for a while but never prioritized reading ebooks. This year, I'm trying to read more to at least get through some of the backlog. I'm looking forward to reading more from her in the future.

🙈 Newest fictional crush: I wouldn't say newest fictional crush but more of a revived fictional crush. Tristan Lyons from the D.O.D.O. series by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. Though there wasn't much competition going back through the list of books I've read this year.

😭 Book that made you cry: Let's go with the obvious and say Becky Chambers's books! Like I said before every single one of her books that I've read so far has had a moment that made me cry.

🥰 Book that made you happy: Siege Tactics by Drew Hayes! This is part of another series, and it just makes my heart all warm and fuzzy.

🍳 Most beautiful book you’ve bought or received this year: Probably The Doloriad by Missouri Williams. It's a pretty simple cover, but it speaks to my soul.

❄️ What books do you need to read by the end of the year?: I take it all of them, isn't the right answer? But in all seriousness, I have a couple of books that I was recently approved for on Netgalley that I need to read. And I have a whole stack of books that I want to read. But I guess that my goal book would be to read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke before the end of the year.

If you want to do this as well, consider yourself tagged. Here's to doing things because we want to!

#bookblr #book blog #bookish #so many books so little time #mid year book tag #chapterchapterbook

[rocketonthemoon]

14 and 17 for the book ask thing

book asks

What books do you want to finish before the year is over: None really! I just finished up a book a week ago and I've been chipping away at other things so I haven't really started anything yet and I'm in limbo. Maybe I'll trying running through A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (my bookstore friend highly recommended it) but I might finally finish one of the romance books on my kindle! We shall see!

Did any books surprise you with how good they were: The Wager by David Grann absolutely blew me away. I don't typically do non-fiction but my best friend recommended the audio book and it was a really good production with the actor being just the right level of dramatic and having a spectacular voice I absolutely blew through it. It was incredibly narrative to the point where when the book was wrapping up the history of all of the people involved I was expecting the fictional narrative wrap up of character arcs and instead it was "and he went to America never to be heard from again". I HIGHLY recommend the audio book but I imagine the physical copy reads just as well!

#erinmcsave #Ask a Rocket #thanks for the questions friend! Sorry to get them back so late

[moonlight--forest]

my 2023 tbr (so far) !

the long way to a small, angry planet - becky chambers

record of spaceborn few - becky chambers

a closed and common orbit - becky chambers

the galaxy, and the ground within - becky chambers

babel - rf kuang

annihilation - jeff vandermeer

news of the dead - james robertson

ariadne - Jennifer saint

artemis - andy weir

the secret history - donna tartt

{subject to change ofc}

22.12.22 ~ this past year (starting in march) i read 21 books - i'm pretty proud of that considering i read only one last year :')

my goal for this coming year is 24 books (so i'll be adding to the above list), which i think is doable - i'd put the number higher, although i have my year abroad for starting in late september/october. books in spain are pretty expensive compared to the uk so i'm gonna be limited there, plus i'll have limited space/weight allowance for travelling. i'll have my kindle though, so hopefully, that'll help the numbers !!!

#i really hope artemis is good cause project hail mary and the martian were masterpieces #i'd die for rocky quite honestly #feel free to give me books recs besties <3 #booklr #books #book #bookrec #bookrecs #fiction #literature #books and literature #babel #rf kuang #wayfarer #wayfarer series #becky chambers #annihilation #jeff vandermeer #news of the dead #james robertson #ariadne #jennifer saint #artemis #andy weir #the secret history #donna tartt

[hagatha-christie]

May reads, if you’re interested at all

Rereads: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Steifvater and The Raven King by Maggie Steifvater: sometimes you want to reminisce about your teenage years by reading about a group of spooky teens who are all obsessed with and at least a little bit in love with each other and that’s fine!

The okay: A Kindle Unlimited romance that I’m too embarrassed to talk fully about here. It was gay, it was cringe, but the characters were sweet and the plot was pretty decent

The good/great: What the Living Do by Marie Howe: ripped my heart out and stomped it on the ground. I didn’t much care for the poems about her youth, but everything else? Amazing

Good Bones by Maggie Smith: I immediately bought two copies of this after reading a library copy - one for me, and one for my friend who has one daughter and is expecting another child with her wife. I’m giving it to her at the baby shower next week.

Goldenrod by Maggie Smith: I liked this a little less than Good Bones but not by much. I mapped out an embroidery project I want to start based on one of the poems. I am a sucker for anyone who writes about the Midwest and is like “yeah it fuckin blows here but it’s also beautiful”.

The Department of Truth Vol. 1 by James Tynion IV: a really interesting graphic novel about conspiracy theories becoming true if enough people believe in them. It’s intentionally confusing and I’m a little bit stupid so I’m not exactly sure about everything that’s going on but I’m enjoying it so far.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers: I identified with the main character a little too much. It’s very gentle and sweet and I needed to read a book with a civilization that makes positive changes when faced with a climate catastrophe so this was kind of like a balm at the end of a very bad, very difficult week. Also there’s a robot named Mosscap which is objectively adorable

Currently reading/almost done with: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull: thank u Levar Burton for featuring one of Turnbull’s stories on your podcast because so far, this is fantastic

#reading

[door]

24! I DNF all the time pls validate me

from the book asks!

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Yes! in practice, i dnf books all the time, although they usually end up being something i pick up again later, when i'm in the mood for it. and it's not that i don't feel like one should abandon books, but more that i know my own tastes pretty well (and can also be stubborn).

this year, The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers fell into that category, which isn't unusual for me and becky--i need to be in a specific mood for her work and i know it, so i'll return to it at a later date and devour it. i bought The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian at an indie bookshop (One Must Always Buy Something if One Can) and started it, but i'm extremely hot and cold with her work and i think this will be one i abandon. i also let my library loan lapse on Bats in the Belfry by E.C.R. Lorac, because it arrived at the tail end of my mad mystery-reading period this year and i couldn't get into it. i think i might have a couple more things languishing on my kindle, which i may or may not come back to.

#book ask meme #friend nat

[everymanwillbeaking]

end-of-year book ask

bc why not, I’m not doing anything else anyway

How many books did you read this year? 28.  

Did you reread anything? What? I’m sure I reread more stuff than just these two books, but I can’t remember them so: - The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. Reread because I found it on my bookshelf and I couldn’t remember a single thing about it except the protagonist was called Macabéa. Ended up not liking it very much, although the prose is very well-crafted - Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind. Reread because I wanted to know if it still held up. I found it edgier than I did when I was a teen who loved Criminal Minds, but I still like it

What were your top five books of the year? A top six (in no particular order) bc I can’t cut it down more than that: - No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai - Macbeth by Shakespeare - The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray by Jorge Amado (jesus christ this translation kills me) - Band Sinister by KJ Charles - All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Over Heaven, by NisiOisiN (and Araki)

Did you discover any new authors that you love this year? No, because I am a fickle bitch who rarely likes more than two books from the same author unless they’re part of a series (and even this isn’t a guarantee), so I hesitate to say I like any particular author instead of a particular book of theirs. But I liked about 90% of everything I’ve finished reading.

What genre did you read the most of? I have no idea. Historical M/M, I think.

Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to? ahahahahaahaha... ha... ha... [looks at the want to read list] I also wanted to read more non-fiction but I still don’t know what kind of non-fiction that would be. Nothing has gripped my attention so far.

What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate? 3.9 Yeah, that sounds about right.

Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones? No because I didn’t set any this year. I don’t need this kind of stress in my life.

Did you get into any new genres? Very much not, it seems lmao

What was your favorite new release of the year? I don’t think I’ve read a single thing published this ear. I was going to read The Galaxy and the Ground Within (Becky Chambers) bc I love her 'verse, but I prefer to read the Brazilian Portuguese translations and this one isn’t out yet.

What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? Macbeth. I don’t think it gets more “out for a while” than that klsdçgldkgçfk

Any books that disappointed you? - You Had Me At Hola, by Alexis Daria. These people were talking about each other being the love of their lives way too fast (which is a problem I come across on a lot of romance novels) - a few novellas in Portuguese I read during my kindle unlimited free trial. Again, stuff happening way too fast for no good reason

What were your least favorite books of the year? You Had Me At Hola, again. I don’t hate it, I just think it could’ve been better paced.

What books do you want to finish before the year is over? None, my brain is fried. If the Book Compulsion(TM) hits again before the year is over, I might finish something. If not, then I won’t.

Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them? Uhhhhhh I don’t think so.

What is the most over-hyped book you read this year? Macbeth, bc well. It’s Shakespeare. And All Quiet In The Western Front, what with it being considered one of the definitive books about World War I (or at least I’ve seen Brazilian critics saying that, idk if the English-speaking world has this opinion). Fortunately neither disappointed me.

Did any books surprise you with how good they were? Once again, All Quiet In The Western Front. I thought it was going to be a slog and ended up on the floor reeling under the force of the punch (complimentary).

How many books did you buy? None, but I had kindle unlimited for a while.

Did you use your library? Also no.

What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations? Probably The Galaxy and the Ground Within, but as I said, I haven’t read it yet so...

Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama? I know about the Bad Art Friend and Isabel Fall stories, but I refused to follow either. I gotta take care of my own health sometimes.

What’s the longest book you read? The Goblin Emperor, I suppose? More than 1000 pages on my e-book reader.

What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book? A couple of hours for the novellas, about 6 hours for longer books.

Did you DNF anything? Why? No but I have a problem identifying things I’m not going to finish vs things I might finish someday.

What reading goals do you have for next year? Absolutely none. I’ll read whatever I want whenever I want, be it 2 books or 20. Although it would be nice to reach 30 books this time.

#saki says something #about books #year in review #let's see if the read more works

[sineala]

Queer novel recs

[A repost from my Patreon.]

By request of the one person who is pledging at a Patreon tier that lets them make meta/review requests of me, some recommendations for queer novels. Fiction-wise, I read pretty much exclusively science fiction and fantasy, with the occasional excursus into historical fiction, so that's what you're getting.

SF/F these days is, happily, getting queerer and queerer. As a general recommendation, a good place to start is the lists of winners and nominees of the Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree Award), which, according to their website, "encourages the exploration and expansion of gender." There's also the Lambda Literary Awards, which are awarded to both fiction and non-fiction LGBT books across various categories, including genre (mystery, romance, SF/F & horror). It's obviously not going to be a guarantee that you'll like any particular one of these books, but at least it means that somebody did.

A whole lot of the Hugo award nominees and winners this year coincidentally happened to be queer fiction, especially in the longer categories. The Best Novel winner, Arkady Martine's The Memory of Empire, is a sprawling space opera starring a diplomat who incidentally (very incidentally) happens to have some Feelings for her cultural liaison, and it's a really good book, anyway. I actually voted for Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, which is billed as "lesbian necromancers in space," and it is pretty much exactly that. It's a murder mystery, which you'd think would be less mysterious in a book where half the characters are necromancers, but this doesn't actually help them much. I thought it was delightful and I have the sequel sitting here on my Kindle waiting for me to read it. But had Gideon not stolen my heart, I would have voted for Kameron Hurley's The Light Brigade. Everything else I have read by Hurley -- well, okay, that's just the Bel-Dame Apocrypha series, actually -- has starred kickass queer people, and this one's no exception. It's military SF in the vein of Starship Troopers or The Forever War with a really well-done time travel plot, in which the twists just keep coming. The narrator's gender is intentionally obscured for about 95% of the novel, and for added fun, they're bisexual. (Charlie Jane Anders' The City in the Middle of the Night also had queer characters but it didn't really grab me.)

(I have to admit I bounced off a lot of the Hugo novella nominees this year, including most of the queer ones, but Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone's This Is How You Lose The Time War (lesbian time-travel agents) did win, although it wasn't really my thing, and Rivers Solomon's The Deep (lesbian mermaids) appears to have gone on to win this year's Lambda instead, although that one wasn't really my thing either. Becky Chambers's To Be Taught, If Fortunate also had some lesbians and I liked that a bit better, but none of those got my #1 vote.)

I have not read it yet and cannot vouch for it but my wife is reading N. K. Jemisin's new short story collection and she says they're very good and a lot of them are queer.

Okay. So. What about less recent queer SF/F, you ask?

I started reading SF/F in the mid-90s, and there wasn't a whole lot of queer SF/F out there in the mainstream SF market, so I imprinted pretty heavily on what there was that I could find, which was basically, at first, the blink-and-you'll-miss-it gay dragonriders of Anne McCaffrey's Pern series. Pern is what The Youth these days would probably call problematic in several ways, but there wasn't much else out there. I also then read Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series, which is basically iddy iddy whump fic with magic telepathic animals who love you, so I'm not saying it's a complete literary masterpiece but Confused Baby Lesbian Sineala sure spent a lot of time wondering why she was identifying so very hard with Vanyel from the Last Herald-Mage trilogy. (I also really enjoyed Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, especially the ones about the Renunciates (the lesbian ones), Heritage of Hastur (the gay one), and The Forbidden Tower (the one where a telepathic orgy solves everyone's problems) but owing to the, uh, terrible things we all found out about MZB after she died, I don't think I can recommend them. Or read them ever again.

Other older queer SF/F that was beloved among my friend group: Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint and its sequels are about a duelist and his boyfriend and a lot of people liked this one, but I never liked it enough to keep up with all the sequels. The first few of Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner books, however, punched me straight in the id; the protagonists are a pair of spies and thieves who are, more or less, this fantasy world's version of elves. There are a whole lot of grätúìtôūs dīåcrìtïcs and after the third book everything gets a little too horrific for me, but I really loved the first three.

But if I had to pick a top three list of authors who have written queer SF/F, this would be my list:

(1) Diane Duane. She is pretty much my favorite author ever, so I am biased here. I first discovered her work with her Star Trek tie-in novels (which, if you like Vulcans and Romulans, are amazing) and then her YA series Young Wizards, which is about teenagers who can do magic and use it to make the universe a better place and it's about ten thousand times more meaningful to me than Harry Potter ever was. But, anyway. She also has a fantasy series called The Tale of the Five, which is an everyone-is-bi-and-poly series started back before that kind of thing was even cool. Also there's a group marriage involving, like, six people, one of whom is a fire elemental. There are three books out in that series, she's still writing novellas set in it, and she swears that she's going to write the fourth and final book that we've been waiting about 25 years for.

(2) Melissa Scott. Everything I have ever read by Melissa Scott, either as a solo author or with her late partner Lisa Barnett, is queer as hell and has amazing worldbuilding. I first encountered her work when I randomly picked up Trouble and Her Friends (lesbian cyberpunk) at a used bookstore and ended up adoring it. Her other works include Shadow Man (set in a future where humanity has a whole lot more intersex people), The Kindly Ones (which has a protagonist whose gender is never specified), and The Armor of Light (alt-history involving Kit Marlowe and a demon). But my favorite series of hers is the Astreiant series, which is a Professionals AU with the serial numbers filed off, but they're filed off really well. It's a series of police procedural mysteries set in Fantasy Matriarchal Renaissance Netherlands, starring a m/m couple, and the fantasy gimmick here is that astrology is really real and really works. They're a lot of fun.

(3) Nicola Griffith. All of her books are about queer women. She has a few that are modern-day thrillers that I didn't so much care for, but I really love her SF. The first book of hers I read was Ammonite, about an anthropologist who gets sent to a planet of only women to try to figure out how they reproduce and ends up going native instead. I really adored it. I also remember really liking Slow River although I no longer remember the actual plot, except that the main character worked at a sewage facility. And it's historical fiction rather than SF, but she's probably most famous for Hild, a novel about Hilda of Whitby. I liked it a lot except for the part where it annoyed me that Griffith invented out of whole cloth the idea that women would have a special female companion and made up a name for it in Old English and everything, and most people who read the book probably believed it was a real thing. But, uh. I did really love Ammonite. I am so weak for planet-of-women books. (This is why I am so sad that I can't ever read the Renunciates of Darkover books again.)

That's about all I can think of right now. I hope some of those recs are, at the very least, new!

#posts i actually wrote

[c-rowlesdraws]

@featherquillpen replied to your photoset “Anon, I know you meant Andalites in their natural bodies, but this is...”

Have you read A Closed and Common Orbit? In that book, an alien gets a human crazy about food.

CUTE.... I’ve heard good things about Becky Chambers’ sci-fi; I really should grab The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and this one for my kindle and read them finally.

#featherquillpen #reply #catie talks #sci-fi #books

[assassinationtipsforladies]

@stoneandbloodandwater challenged me to write a list of the ten books I want to read in 2020, which I was really excited about because actually I've been feeling like, since I finished uni I haven't been reading very much and I want to challenge myself to read more

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman- since the series came out I've realised how much of it I forgot and I really enjoyed it, so I want to re-read the trilogy

The Wizards of Earthsea by Ursula Leguin- I love Ursula Leguin, but I've really only read her adult books so I want to try these

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison - I want to read more books written by WOC AND N. K. Jemison always comes up on recommended lists

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - described as a classic, character driven space opera but gay, so lie, yeah

Saoghail Eile by Màiri NicLeòid- I want to read more Gaelic books and I bought this on kindle ages ago so I shoukd finally read it

One of my goals for this year is also to learn more about the history of radical movements so I'm planning to read - People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, Demanding the Impossible: a history of anarchism by Peter Marshall, and Free Comrades: anarchism and homosexuality in the United States 1895-1917 by Terrance Kissack

And finally: PhD: an uncommon guide by James Hayton. I want to apply to a PhD program next year so this year I need to focus on doing the background research to write my proposal and grant applications

Tagging @bespectacledbibliophile @soidreamtiwasastarfleetcommander @wombat-shaped