Good Morning Blue Sky! Hope you’re all ok? Today I’m currently reading some eerie horror The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister. What are you reading at the moment?
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The Bog Wife was a fascinating tale using the theme of being stuck JJ life really well. Review to come - next up The Dead Cat Assassins by P Djeli Clark
Morning Womble! I'm reading Margery Allingham's Look to the Lady, which is one of the early Campion books. It's fun, but far more of a romp than the later books.
One of my favourite knitwear designers did an Allingham themed club last year, and I read through from Sweet Danger to Hide My Eyes as part of that, then went back to catch up on the earlier ones. Reading in order from the start would have been easier, I think.
When I first read Allingham as a pre-teen I liked the silliness of the earlier books and found the later ones too dark for me, but as an adult I can recognise how much she grew as a writer over her career.
I finished Helliconia Spring yesterday, now need to review. I will probably read Summer next, even though I had originally had in mind another author's book. Or it will be an arc from Net Galley, or Seanan's new Wayward Children, which my library said is ready for me.
reading an excellent collection of short stories, Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare, by Japanese-Hawaiian author Megan Kamalei Kakimoto. I love how the stories are woven around Kanaka superstitions (listed in the first chapter)
This is a series I'm considering starting this year! But there seems to be a LOT going on?! 😅 With novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels... Feels like a big commitment!
I know you didn't ask me, but it's really intense! Beautifully written as Due's stuff always is, but the intensity meant i it took me a little longer to read because I needed more breaks from the unflinching cruelty of most of the adults in the story
Good afternoon all!
I am finishing ‘where memories go’ by Sally Magnusson about her mother’s decline. Interesting approach (she did some research), recognizable (my own mother),witty and funny in parts and terribly sad.
My best book read in 2025 was “Patriot”, the memoir of Alexei Navalny. His humor, optimism in spite of it all, his passion for his country and his work are especially inspiring as we begin 2025 and 4 years of autocracy.
Just finished Bold in Her Breeches by Jo Stanley. A 1990s non-fiction exploration of women and piracy.
I’ve made a tactical error and had three non-fiction on the go at once which means I’m slow to finish them and haven’t started any fiction yet this year.
Howdy Womble. I'm in non-fiction territory, reading Mean Streak by @squigglyrick.bsky.social. It's a detailed account of the robodebt viciousness from a few years ago. Extraordinary reporting and writing.
Morning, I'm just starting Settling The World, a selection of stories by M John Harrison. Love the longer work of his I've read so looking forward to the short stories
Arboreality by Rebecca Campbell (which expands on her story An Important Failure). It’s set in a future dealing with the impact of climate change (sea level rises and devastating wildfires), making it additionally unsettling with the LA fires in the news.
Good morning Womble. I'm reading "Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror", edited by Jordan Peele... a book with which you are familiar, I believe. Honestly. Booktempting me is *easy*, it's no challenge for a grown womble, now, is it?
it's quite unusual in that regard. This first came to my attention because I moderated a panel at Worldcon on Multiverses (Multiverses have been my jam loooong before Marvel movies) , and one of the collective ( @darusha.ca ) was one of my fellow panelists.
Just finished the sublime "The Elements of Marie Curie: How The Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science", by Dava Sobel. So much to think about.
It's a beautiful weaving together of Marie Curie's life and her scientific work - in quite a lot of detail but not too dense - with stories of so many of the women who worked in her lab and the contributions they made. Dava Sobel is such a good writer and a storyteller!
Finishing up 'Drunk Tank Pink', which is a riveting look into the psychological effects colors, names, places, & more have on us as humans. Quite an interesting study! Looking forward to the next book in my stack, 'Aquamarine', a simple novel.
Morning Womble! This week I have mostly been reading off the beaten path as I am currently reading Death & other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt & on audio, a friend recommended Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert
@seanferrell.bsky.social's steampunky adventure The Sinister Secrets of Singe.
The basic bones of the story so far are like a MG version of Zeke's story in first Clockwork Century book by Cherie Priest, if Briar raised him to also invent things
That's such a complex story, it totally rewards rereading. Irving is pretty much my one exception to my inability to read contemporary lit fic by white men. (Prayer for Owen Meany still kills me every time I read it.)
Prayer for Owen Meany is such a powerful bit of writing. I must reread it. I turn 72 in a couple of days and it has been a long time since I read John Irving. I've read Hotel New Hampshire several times and I think I've got everything out of it I can. But Owen Meany still has some juice left.
It's been long enough since I've read it, I might need to dig it out again soon. Also, I've got a nephew named Owen, and I've always thought one day I'd give him a copy of it. I have no idea what he'd make of it...but he might be the right age now for me to give him a copy for his birthday.
Hey Womble! I started Jeff Noon & Steve Beard's Gogmagog last night. Its remarkable, a weird, dark psychedelic road (river) trip with a fascinatingly confusing narrator who doesn't know what day it is but knows lots of flamboyant insults and arcane knowledge.
I am reading Stanley Tucci's TASTE: My Life Through Food (after just finishing his WHAT I ATE IN A YEAR) and really enjoying it. He has a great, compelling writing voice.
Continuing my winter of revisiting Cherryh, I'm reading Yvgenie, the third of the Slavic folklore trilogy about a family/found family of mostly-wizards living in the forest north of Kiev with their horses and yard-thing and house-thing and a malevolent enemy who just won't die.
I've also got my Mp3-cd of the audiobook of The Cloud Roads in the car. I love @marthawells.com's Raksura books so much I bought them as both e- and trd pbk and have reread umpteen times.
I don't want this to end because I was never able to get the rest of the Raksura, except for Edge of Worlds, as cds, and I want to just go through it all on my winter commutes. I wish I could find cds of the rest.
And I'm reading all my Haruhi Suzumiya light novels again, which is only confirming my belief that, in fact, it is Kyon who, unknown to himself, is the godlike being behind it all, not Haruhi. And there are two new ones since vol. 10 to look forward too! Maybe my theory will ultimately be confirmed?
Hiya Womble! I'm a little late to the party, but I just finished my first Joe Abercrombie, Half a King. I'm slowly making my way through The Intelligence Trap, which is fascinating but dense. Also dipping into the very pretty and light Disney Book of Maps!
Good evening Womble!
Earlier I finished The Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli, I'm rereading the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire and later I'm starting The Morrigan by Kim Curran
Oh I love Powers 19th century work, the two sequels to Stress are great too. He really gets under the skin of the real history and real people so his fantastic elements fit in the world he writes.
That is a fascinating pairing 😅 any favourite stories from Books of Blood yet? I need to go back and read them again, I don't think I read every story first time round.
The 'Name of the Rose' - Umberto Eco. But in Italian!
I'm still trying to make progress in speaking/reading Italian so I thought reading a book I love and know in English, may help. I also listen to the audio version as I fall asleep in the vain hope it will reprogramme my brain as I sleep!!!
That’s a really good idea! I never thought of using audiobooks to improve my French and German before! (I watch shows and films I know well in the other language with subtitles also in that language and never thought to apply that to books!)
It does seem to help a bit as I just let it wash over me without desperately trying to understand it and am often surprised how much I (probably) understand.
Futoromania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines and Tomorrow’s Music Today by Simon Reynolds, which is about electronic music from the late '60s/early '70s to now.
Technically not SF&F, but a decent amount of intersection with it, actually.
It is so far. Ofc, I am reading it backwards. But the chapters on electronic music as art project and the resurgence in ambient in the 2010s track pretty well with my view of what's been going on recently. I don't agree w/every conclusion he draws/evidence he marshals, but that's to be expected.
One of the British Library Tales of the Weird I haven't read yet - Deadly Dolls: Midnight Tales of Uncanny Playthings. Finished Daniel Carpenter's Hunting by the River yesterday.
Happy Sunday Womble. I’m focusing on chores this weekend, and my reward reading is one of my highly anticipated 2025 releases: The Unkillable Princess by Taran Hunt 🚀
Good morning, Darth Tobermoriarty Womble. I am half way through Darkly by Marisha Pessl. It’s a YA mystery where 7 teens are selected to come to England to solve a game left by a legendary creator. Sadly it’s not doing it for me, mainly because Pessi has confused barristers with solicitors.
A third of the way into Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out by Ryan Love and for a book with publisher marketing about it being a cozy loving uplifting hug it sure has been relentless homophobia, forced outing, slurs, gay bashing, extreme family rejection, and general terror
Making my way through the final Hyperion novel, The Rose of Endymion, by Dan Simmons. Can't believe it took me this long to get around to the series, it's an unbelievable achievement in science fiction writing. Highly recommend even just the first novel.
morning womble 200 pages into this now - it’s truly bizarre how sordid (there’s a lot of self soiling and rough trade) it is and i’m still struck how a similar work could be written of sundry working men’s clubs without the gaudy panache of francis bacon’s champagne corks popping
Afternoon Womble, currently reading Blood Over Bright Haven, which has some pointed things to say about Colonialism, and just finished the Will of the Many, that also had some thoughts on colonialism
the thing I notice about reading a book written by an Australian (Will of the Many) is that the writing of people swimming doesn’t make me think they’d drown in anything wavier than a pool
I grew up on Chronicles of Prydain and The Dark is Rising, so I've had a fascination ever since (which baffles most Welsh people I've encountered, lol) I've been learning Welsh on duolingo because I'm just that nerdy
Currently, The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong. Time travel (sort of) murder mystery in Victorian Edinburgh. Great fun. Other good recent reads - The Killing Sense by Sam Blake, v. tense Paris-set contemporary thriller. Dead Man's Shoes by Marion Todd, solid and inventive police procedural.
Got back home this morning after just over a week away, and am looking forward to getting back to reading A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle aloud to me kid, and for her to get back to reading Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen aloud to me.
Greetings, Womble! Taking a break from 60s spycraft (I loved Karla's Choice!) with Alan Bradley's new Flavia de Luce book, What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust. I was hoping to read Gautam Bhatia's The Sentence next, but alas, my order fell through.
Morning Womble! Ive just finished the really quite excellent Flesh & Blood by Stephen McGann & am moving onto book 2 of Shrubley the Monster Adventurer :D
Howdy, Womble-dude! I'm still reading *A Deepness in the Sky* by Vernor Vinge. Not sure why it's taking so long, as it's a good book, just a lot longer than I thought.
Hello Womble. This week I'm finishing Mary Robinette Kowal's The Fated Sky, halfway into Robert McCammon's latest and final Matthew Corbett novel Leviathan (historical fiction/adventure/mystery with maybe a hint of supernatural) and Stuart Kaminsky's Red Chameleon (historical crime fiction).
Good morning Womble! I'm reading TC Parker's "Tradwife," a pseudo-journalistic look into some brutal murders in a "traditional living" community. Interesting stuff!
Murder with Collard Greens and Hot sauce. By A L. Herbert.
It's a Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mystery.
I am learning a lot about black hair products and drooling over the recipes. This author has me laughing. She calls a plus sized woman a 14. She throws in a ton of snark, clever trivia. Enjoyable!
Just finished Daughters of Nighy by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (about which I cannot say enough good things!) and dived straight into Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix which is off to a good start.
Morning. Just started light over liskeard which is a strange SF satire by Louis de Bernieres and the Seep by Chana Porter. Audio remains the mirror and the light
Good morning Womble, I'm good thank you hope the world is treating you well today?
I have an interesting historical fiction about a young Victorian Egyptologist who is believes tragedy in her family stens from the showing of a certain mummified body. Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll out next month
Still listening to "Fate of the Fallen" by Kel Kade free via the podcast "Stories from Among the Stars"; added "Hell Cats" because I think my January theme is going to be catching up on Mary & Anne pirate things I've missed, there's a whole album (The Legend of Anne Bonny) I had no idea existed!
Hi Womble! I have just picked up Clay McLeod Chapman's latest novel Wake Up And Open Your Eyes. I am about to crack it open now but I've heard from really great things about it!
I'm 200 pages in and happy to report this is an S-Tier horror book! Extremely relevant look at today's media, from news outlets to social media platforms. With some really greatly written, skin crawling moments too!
Once Upon a River (Diane Setterfield) - following my eternal love of Books set around Rivers and Cities. But then my library hold on Planetfall (Emma Newman) came through so I am double dipping
Good morning! I’m reading a mix of things: THE AUDACITY OF HOPE by Obama, a @thesfincs.bsky.social novella FROM THE DEPTHS by BSH Garcia, & an ARC called GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES by Jillian Meadows.
Really trying to see the charm in Alexander McCall Smith's series "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" but he is making the characters out to be near half-wits.
I hesitate to inflict these books on a helpless Little Free Library, but I'm not keeping them.
I'm reading Remake by Connie Willis, which is annoyingly (brilliantly) prescient; and How The Railways Will Fix The Future by @garethdennis.bsky.social, which compellingly outlines a better future, which is annoyingly unlikely for all the reasons it also outlines as to why we don't already have it.
Good morning Skylarks. The dreaded lurgy had me pinned down 🤧, but this allowed me to read a lot 🥳. Mainly older N.Gaiman, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But today I am very much engrossed in "The Tainted Cup" by @robertjbennett.bsky.social. Brilliant and a movie waiting to happen.
Morning Womble! I devoured 'The Seventh Son' by Sebastian Faulks this week (loved it, but hated the ending); have just started 'Tigana' by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Good morning! Halfway through Thorns (Silverberg). I'm not quite sure why I do this to myself. There are plenty of books out there with actual female characters with personalities and plot significance and even the capacity for independent thought. Still, I end up reading 1960s Silverberg.
Morning Womble. Just started Russell Norris' Redface, autobiographical non-fiction that talks about his social anxiety. Only a couple of chapters in, but genuinely insightful stuff.
yes, I already came across some interesting books here. mostly history-stuff. but there is also a new book of Austrian writer Wolf Haas (Wackelkontakt) I’ll need to get hold of.
Evening Womble, hope you’re doing okay! I’m *finally* reading The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow. I reckon it’s been on my TBR for long enough! 🤭
I keep looking at my TBR and shaking my head as I don't know what to read, I've put Wind and Truth on the back burner as I'm not feeling it. I might reread Cradle again.
It is incredibly good. I read the first two novels and they were amazing, so I'm going to back to the two collections I have before returning to the last two novels
Yep! I finished the robot series with intentions of reading the later foundation books but got sidetracked by Philip K. Dick (as I seemingly always do 😂)
It's decent so far. I'm on the fourth story. They're all loosely linked so I'll move straight onto the second volume as soon as I'm done in a day or two
Good morning Womble! It’s been a long time, hope you’ve been doing well.
I’m currently reading ‘A Crónica de Travnik’ or in English, ‘Bosnian Chronicle’, by Ivo Andrić.
Good morning! I just finished Lord of Light by Zelazny (which was a great excuse to read into Hindu/Buddhist cosmology) and started McCarthy's The Road. I've been really enjoying McCarthy's writing style so far!
What kind of horror is that?
Been reading Crime and Punishment for over a year now lmao. Not for lack of trying, I just read in-between art. projects, and have had constant art going on.
On the Kindle, Red Rising by Pierce Brown, which has somehow passed me by forever. On paper, Kiss the Dead by Laurell K Hamilton, I think the 21st of the series so I am crawling towards being caught up 😆
I can't believe there are like 30+ Anita Blake books now?! 😅 I'm not even sure how many I've actually read... But a full reread would be SUCH a big commitment!
I am riveted to Hokuloa Road by Elizabeth Hand, a thriller with (probably? maybe?) supernatural elements. It’s set in an isolated spot in Hawaii, and Hand is managing to make paradise as creepy as hell.🌴👀
(Many thanks to @salty-horse.bsky.social for reminding me I had this on my TBR!)
I love how @elizabethhand.bsky.social straddles that liminal area of might be fantastika, might not in such an unsettling way. Have you read her Cass Neary books? They're brutal, addictive punk noir that also tread that line of (un)realism.
I haven't read the Cass Neary series yet, no, but I have them. And yes, she handles that ambiguity of the supernatural so well! I think it works for me because I find her characters and their actions and reactions so completely believable.
Just finished the excellent Our Hideous Progeny by CE McGill and am onto The Ornithologist's Field Guild to Love by India Holton for something a little lighter. I've also very nearly finished A Song of Legends Lost - keep putting it down for days on end then picking it up again. *sigh*
Good morning. Having just finished the last Orphan X novel by Gregg Hurwitz, I'm going rogue today. I don't read many biographies, but I'm about to start Little Wonder: Lottie Dod the First Female Sports Star by Sasha Abramsky.
Morning, Womble. I finished The Bog Wife a couple of days ago! It was very good. Now I'm on to Metal From Heaven by August Clarke, and I'm still rereading The Dragonbone Chair via audiobook.
Morning Womble! I'm excited about The Bog Wife, can't wait to hear your thoughts. I'm reading I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, a speculative/dystopian dream of a book.
Finally got a chance to read Alan Moore's The Great When. There's no denying the imagination, the characters, or the pace (for the 1st two thirds).
The only problem I really had was it kept reminding me of NK Jemisin's The City We Became.
Still, it's wild. Can't wait for the 2nd book in the series.
morning Womble! I just finished THE STATES by @norahwoodsey.com—really enjoyed how she took the usual will-they-won't-they/he-couldn't-want-ME tropes and made them feel fresh/true by tying them to the insecurities of her protag, brought on by the abuse she gets from her deliciously horrible family.
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I'm currently reading Recall Order by @davemccreery.bsky.social, for some cool sci-fi mech action.
Finished "The Familiar", which I greatly enjoyed. Now I'm about to give "The Reformatory" a whirl.
As ever, if I dig it, I'll make that known. 🙂
I am finishing ‘where memories go’ by Sally Magnusson about her mother’s decline. Interesting approach (she did some research), recognizable (my own mother),witty and funny in parts and terribly sad.
I’ve made a tactical error and had three non-fiction on the go at once which means I’m slow to finish them and haven’t started any fiction yet this year.
"The Forgotten Beasts of Eld" - Patricia McKillip
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211480848-water-moon
The basic bones of the story so far are like a MG version of Zeke's story in first Clockwork Century book by Cherie Priest, if Briar raised him to also invent things
"Questions were a mistake.... They lead to more questions, and what's worse, to answers."
Great stuff!
Earlier I finished The Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli, I'm rereading the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire and later I'm starting The Morrigan by Kim Curran
In the eyes: Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
In the ears: Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Let's see which gets darkest.
I'm still trying to make progress in speaking/reading Italian so I thought reading a book I love and know in English, may help. I also listen to the audio version as I fall asleep in the vain hope it will reprogramme my brain as I sleep!!!
I have The Bog Wife on my TBR, so need to know what you think. Worth buying or borrow instead?
Technically not SF&F, but a decent amount of intersection with it, actually.
Currently reading The Seventh Veil of Salome and LOVING IT.
Turns out there are other POV characters and the Nigeria in the book is centuries in the future. This is the "rainbow bamboo" series which is lovely
I'm doing my usual start of the year which books have I heard enough good things about I should actually get to before awards conversations start.
First of the pile is Private Rites by Julia Armfield, it's a good as everyone's said so far.
Meanwhile the latest Wayward Children release calls to me...
Involved but written with a lightness of touch and peopled with extraordinary characters.
"What happened when a conservative people tried revolution."
It's a Mahalia Watkins Soul Food Mystery.
I am learning a lot about black hair products and drooling over the recipes. This author has me laughing. She calls a plus sized woman a 14. She throws in a ton of snark, clever trivia. Enjoyable!
I have an interesting historical fiction about a young Victorian Egyptologist who is believes tragedy in her family stens from the showing of a certain mummified body. Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll out next month
Audiobook: The Wizard of Oz
❤️
I hesitate to inflict these books on a helpless Little Free Library, but I'm not keeping them.
I’ve loved the L Frank Baum’s Oz books growing up, so welcome all spinoffs & derivatives (I’ve also seen Wicked on stage 7 times 🫠).
I’m glad it’s something I share with my niece. So now finally reading the Dorothy Must Die series, as recommended by her. 💙📚
I’m reading Bluesky posts.
Also have a few downloaded samples of books waiting to be read - all recommendations from #BookSky
Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear (Wayward Children Book 10)
Seanan McGuire
And it’s thus far, unsurprisingly, as great as the first 9 books in the series.
I’m currently reading ‘A Crónica de Travnik’ or in English, ‘Bosnian Chronicle’, by Ivo Andrić.
I gotta say though, switching between 3 books has got me very confused.
Been reading Crime and Punishment for over a year now lmao. Not for lack of trying, I just read in-between art. projects, and have had constant art going on.
(Many thanks to @salty-horse.bsky.social for reminding me I had this on my TBR!)
I'm listening to The Silence of Scheherezade, which is set in Smyrna in the early 20th century. But I'm half enjoying it and half kinda bored 😅
How are you liking The Bog Wife? 🤩 I read it last year too
The only problem I really had was it kept reminding me of NK Jemisin's The City We Became.
Still, it's wild. Can't wait for the 2nd book in the series.
❤️❤️❤️❤️