Good Morning Blue Sky! Hope you’re all ok? Today I’m currently reading the very interesting SF novel Extremophile by Ian Green. What are you reading at the moment?
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Just finished Orbital, the marvelous and beautiful Booker winner by Samantha Harvey. Going left to right through The Rediscovery of Man, the complete Cordwainer Smith short fiction collection. Brilliant stuff, well written. Currently halfway through Dostoevsky's wild "The Double."
Also read a few on holiday, including House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias (brutal but awesome) and Fourth Wing (great to read about dragons while on a beach)
Good evening to you Womble. I was already grieving about a lot of things in the real world, now grieving with Aud Torvingen as I read Stay by Nicola Griffith.
evening! Im quite late however! Just finished a wonderful fantasy Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope
beneath the waters protecting terrorized Black towns & families a sancutary where they can live in peace, innovation and spirituality. A powerful tale with a powerful ending of hope
Good morning Womble. I’m finishing up two books this morning; Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie and Scanlines by Todd Keisling. Have no idea what I’m going to read next.
I'm coming into the final straight of "Ash" which took a little time to get into but is raging along now.
Listening to "The Eyes Of The Void" which continues to have fun with the rag-tag crew of the Vulture God, who have been constantly out of their depth for 1.5 books by this point.
Mad day racing to Brighton Fringe yesterday for a show. Hubby and I started the audio of Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune for book club. I'm also reading Resurrection Blues by @marieoregan.bsky.social and it turned out yesterday our very own Will Seaward knows you, Marie! Small world!
I've recently finished Joe Abercrombie's The Devils (v good) and now I'm in "the dip" where I just hopelessly stare at my to be read pile and then give up trying to choose because it's too difficult and I'm just going to wait for the next thing Waterstones deliver that I'd forgotten I'd ordered.
I recently discovered, while trying to find another book, that I own two identical paperbacks of The Ladies of Grace Adieu. At least—could have a third…
Evening Womble! Not been able to read yet today due to football, but just finished On The Calculation Of Volume and starting Amal El-Mohtar's The River Has Roots tonight!
Morning Womble. Sunny - for now - here in Dublin. This week I finished Tina by Niall Harbison - lovely read. Then read The Gilded Nest by Sarah Painter - latest in the excellent Crow Investigations fantasy series. Now reading The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves.
I'm in the middle of moving house, so not much spare brain power! I'm rereading Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison, slowly this time to enjoy the world building and the way she makes the Holmesian fantasy work.
Good morning Womble. I'm reading Susie Dent's "Guilty by Definition" - a psychological thriller set among Oxford lexicographers. This should be catnip for me, but I'm finding it a bit plodding. Maybe it'll liven up as it goes on.
Morning Womble! Happy Sunday! Today, I am juggling A crow called Torment by Silas A. Bischoff and I have just started a Dick Tracey comic by Alex Segura.
Morning Womble! doing all right, hope you are too. 💚
Just finished David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish, which was great. Still working my way through The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera on the fiction side.
Morning Womble hope alls well! Between bashing all manner of risen dead in a field near Spondon, I’m reading Eagle Days by Dr Victoria Taylor - a really interesting look at the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.
Hullo Womble, happy Sunday! Reading is a bit chaotic lately (lol, "lately") but the book I am advancing through rn pretty smoothly is Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer. The audio narration is really great.
Good morning! My son picked my next read from my shelf & went with Thirteenth by @cmrosens.com But I realised it's the 2nd book in the series (though you can read them as standalone, apparently). So now I've paused Thirteenth two excellent chapters in, and am now reading the 1st book - The Crows
Hi! I have just finished the first book in The Seven Suns Saga by Kevin J Anderson. Rather amused that the final line is the shocking revelation by genocidal robots to the stupid humans is that “We lied”. Also onto the third book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series which I’m loving.
Good morning Womble, I just finished Among Friends by Hal Ebbott with my morning coffee, and I'm also reading Swordheart by the always wonderful T Kingfisher and really enjoying myself
Fascinating and also depressing that it was written in 1992 and partly set in a time close to now where there has been a recent pandemic. That fictional world is coping much better with it than this one.
Ray Nayler's novella The Tusks of Extinction, which I'm reading because it's up for a Hugo and I gotta talk smart about Hugo finalists at a con next month. And also because his last one, The Mountain in the Sea, was really good.
Today I am reading 'Oh Dear, Maria' by Abigail Ted, an indie book inspired by early novels such as Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, but with the 80s movie adaptation silliness. Truly intrigued to see where it's headed, but so far written with a great sense of humour 🥰
Good afternoon, Womble! After a long morning walk with Baz the wonder pug, I’m settling in to read Don’t Sleep with the Dead by @nghivo.bsky.social . I loved The Chosen and The Beautiful, so I can’t wait to see what happens with Nick.
Good morning Womble! I'm still in the excellent Big Book of Cyberpunk thanks to a certain tempter 🙂
Top of my TBR is Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. I loved the series, and when I saw a character in The Last of Us holding the novel (very meta!) I had to investigate. Written 1949
I've just started Annie Bot by Sierra Greer as we switch from Hugo to Clarke, not got far enough in for admit real judgements yet so interested to see where I fall on it.
Morning Womble, I'm good, hope you are too. Still on A Sorceress cones to Call, and testing out library book apps. Accidentally started Tansy Rayner Roberts new book of shorts, Crown Tourney, which I thoroughly enjoying.
Morning Womble.
Since my darling cat went over the rainbow on friday, it's been very empty and quiet. Started A little life by Hanya Yanagihara. I heard it is rather sad, so maybe that is fitting for me right now
I'm planning on some delivery gig work this afternoon. I'm taking the Nature anthology Futures, edited by Henry Gee, just in case there's too much time between orders. Short, bite-sized science fiction just perfect for reading when on call.
Good morning Womble. Lots of rain and cold again, so the TBR list goes down faster than the To-Be-Planted one! I’m splitting my time between Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud, Lincoln & Child’s The Cabinet of Curiosities and the Victorian mystery Bedford Park by Anne Perry. 📚💙
Good morning Womble! I am currently reading Skyla Dawn Cameron's latest Waverly Jones mystery, "Silent All These Years." This series is much slower-paced than my usual reads, and yet I'm enthralled because the characters and mysteries are amazing!
I kept arguing with the characters in my head, because the book made me think enough and care enough to argue with it, which is kinda rare for me these days. I love it when a book can do that for me. And yes, lovely writing, elegant but transparent. Worth a reread at some point, I think.
Hi Womble! Enjoying the nice weather here. Perfect for sitting in the sun with a book!
🌞
Just started The Betrayal of Thomas True by A. J. West. Historical fiction about London’s Molly Houses.
Love it so far.
Finished “The Death of the Author” which I found interesting & surprising; now reading “Shards of Earth” by A. Tchaikovsky. I started it last night when I was tired & am finding this morning that I’ll have to reread the beginning to get the names straight in my head.
Good morning!! I finished Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite & Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch this week. Currently reading The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle and listening The Devils by Joe Abercrombie.
Hi mr Womble, hope all is well over at your end, I'm reading Brynne Weaver's Butcher & Blackbird and trying to psych myself up to read the boy and the dog by Seishu Hase because I have a feeling it will be a tearjecker...
Doing some Lodestar reading: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole is very good in a "not reeeally for me but eh" way, and Sheine Lende is very good in all the ways.
Morning Wombler! I devoured and savoured both Monk and Robot novellas by Becky Chambers, so comforting and nourishing. Then satiated my novella cravings with Saturation Point by @aptshadow.bsky.social. Now on He Who Drowned The World by @shelleyparkerchan.bsky.social.
Afternoon, Womble! I am reading John Wyndham's Stowaway to Mars, originally published in book form as Planet Plane by John Beynon in 1936, and it is much better than I'd always thought Wyndham's prewar work was. It's more ostensibly pulpy than his 1950s novels, but there's a fun satirical side too.
Just started Slow Horses by Mick Herron. I tried ep. 1 of the TV series but realized immediately that I would enjoy it more in book form. Maybe I'll go back to the TV series after I finish the books.
ARCs of The Incandescent by Emily Tesh and The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor (non-fiction about Richard II & Henry Bolingbroke), yes I'm very behind on ARCs/reviews... Also Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, after I realised my local library has all the Jackson Brodie as e-books.
Hello, Womble! Today I read the latest "Saga" TP (I guess I'll be reading this comic into the next decade, at this pace), and I'm going back to Ai Jiang's "A Palace Near the Wind" (started it during the week, but life happened and exhaustion hit, so I'll just restart it from the first page).
Afternoon, Womble. I'm reading The Quatermass Experiment: The Making of TV's First Sci-Fi Classic by Toby Hadoke. Thorough research and personable prose.
Good afternoon Womble! I’m reading Displeasure Island by Alice Bell (book 2 in the Grace Expectations series), and last night when my CFS was kicking my ass I started The Valley of Adventure by Enid Blyton (a comfort read if ever there was one!). Happy reading to you all!
Good morning Womble, cracking into some non fiction with Moon Dust by Andrew Smith - an exploration of what life was like afterwards for the astronauts who went to the moon
Good morning Womble! Having finished Art Spiegelman's Maus, and The Left Hand of Darkness, I've moved on to George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails. Enjoying it so far.
Been reading some Philip K Dick short stories this week.
His characters aren't always much more than plot cyphers, but some of his ideas feel smart enough to begin bending reality.
He could do things with paranoia & technology that are bordering on contagious.
I recently acquired this fine little tome and it’s proving to be one of the best purchases this year. Sampled quite a few stories so far - all them immensely engaging.
Looks like you've got some classics in there.
The best of his short stories are absolute prose fireworks. Some with a long, slow fuse. Some that end so fast they leave you trying to blink away the glare.
Morning Womble! I'm on The AI Con from Emily Bender and Alex Hanna (exactly as awesome as it sounds) and Ben Aaronvitch's Winter's Gifts, ahead of the next Rivers of London release
Also just finished Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books from Kirsten Miller, which I *loved*
Good morning! I'm currently reading Metaphase, the third book of Vonda N. McIntyre's very enjoyable Starfarers quartet, in which humans are blundering their hapless, hopeful way through Earth people's first interstellar journey.
I’m on the Belgium leg of my “Around The World In 80 Books” challenge with Will by Jeroen Olyslaegers. 25 pages in. Very good, but I can see it’s going to be grim and uncomfortable.
Morning Womble! I’m on a brief diversion from awards, reading Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi (whose noir-but-fantasy tone goes /hard/ right from the start). Hope you’re enjoying Extremophile as that one is in my near future.
I have just this moment finished The Sea and the Summer, courtesy of a recommendation from @scifiscavenger.bsky.social - a wonderful and prophetic book. Would recommend.
Since you caught me in between books, I'll mention the next one: The Doors of Eden from @aptshadow.bsky.social. Greatly enjoying so far: effortlessly readable, well thought out ideas, good prose, nice characterisation: ticks all my boxes. Trying hard not to consume in one sitting.
Wotcher, Womble! On digital I'm still having a glorious time with Vivian Shaw's Dreadful Company. On paper, my supposedly palate-cleansing historical (The Marsh King's Daughter by Elizabeth Chadwick) has developed a remarkably high body count!
Good Evening, Womble. Just finished Firelord (mentioned previously: absolutely exceptional and stuck the landing) so today I dipped back into Dawson’s THE MAKING OF EUROPE, where I’m at the nonfiction version of the same general story.
Hello Womble. I am good thanks, hope you are too. I have just finished Rose the Dr Who target novelisation by Russell T Davis & am now reading book two in the babel saga - the arm of the sphinx.
Allen Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, partly for the Hugos but I was going to read it anyway
Very effectively creepy story of a horrible oppressive government which sends expendable dissidents to do space exploration, and the syncretic alien ecosystem they are exploring
Comments
I love all the Djinn and rougishness in these books!boo
beneath the waters protecting terrorized Black towns & families a sancutary where they can live in peace, innovation and spirituality. A powerful tale with a powerful ending of hope
Listening to "The Eyes Of The Void" which continues to have fun with the rag-tag crew of the Vulture God, who have been constantly out of their depth for 1.5 books by this point.
One out of historical interest and one for sheer pleasure. Both absorbing thus far.
I’m still reading The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke.
I’m also rereading a great many of my Doctor Who Target books ahead of Target Day in July.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209561575-the-grimoire-grammar-school-parent-teacher-association
Just finished David Lynch's Catching the Big Fish, which was great. Still working my way through The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera on the fiction side.
and
The Ripple Effect: Gender and Race in Brazilian Culture and Literature by Maria José Somerlate Barbosa
In the eyes: Still Life by Louise Penny
In the ears: My Friends by Hisham Matar
Also..... Could this be the week I finish House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski????
I interrupted you and saved a life 😇
Fascinating and also depressing that it was written in 1992 and partly set in a time close to now where there has been a recent pandemic. That fictional world is coping much better with it than this one.
Today I am reading 'Oh Dear, Maria' by Abigail Ted, an indie book inspired by early novels such as Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson, but with the 80s movie adaptation silliness. Truly intrigued to see where it's headed, but so far written with a great sense of humour 🥰
Two unemployed potters decide to stage a play using starving -- and hated -- Athenian prisoners of war as their cast. What could go wrong?
One of my absolute favourite authors.
Top of my TBR is Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. I loved the series, and when I saw a character in The Last of Us holding the novel (very meta!) I had to investigate. Written 1949
I've just started Annie Bot by Sierra Greer as we switch from Hugo to Clarke, not got far enough in for admit real judgements yet so interested to see where I fall on it.
Nonfiction: A Walk In The Park
Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar and Naved Nasir
toilet book - almanac of the dead by leslie marmon silby
by the chair book - fear by bob woodward
Since my darling cat went over the rainbow on friday, it's been very empty and quiet. Started A little life by Hanya Yanagihara. I heard it is rather sad, so maybe that is fitting for me right now
“Everything gets fixed, and we all stay broken.”
🌞
Just started The Betrayal of Thomas True by A. J. West. Historical fiction about London’s Molly Houses.
Love it so far.
Currently with The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
His characters aren't always much more than plot cyphers, but some of his ideas feel smart enough to begin bending reality.
He could do things with paranoia & technology that are bordering on contagious.
The best of his short stories are absolute prose fireworks. Some with a long, slow fuse. Some that end so fast they leave you trying to blink away the glare.
Also just finished Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books from Kirsten Miller, which I *loved*
Audio: The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
Kindle: The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
and Mother Rebel Misfit Sleuth by Lisa Nicholas
Allen Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky, partly for the Hugos but I was going to read it anyway
Very effectively creepy story of a horrible oppressive government which sends expendable dissidents to do space exploration, and the syncretic alien ecosystem they are exploring
I am very slowly reading 'All You Need Is Kill' by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Enjoying it but just a slow week.
It came with this egregious movie tie in cover!