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Joined 4 months ago
Cake day: February 13th, 2025
  • Contrariwise@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoBooks@lemmy.world•What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? June 17English
    2·
    22 hours ago

    I started reading some fantasy by T. Kingfisher (both books of The Clocktaur War and a standalone or two), and I enjoyed the duology enough to request some of her other fantasy books from the library, so I’ll read some more of them next week. I’d only read some of her horror novels previously. (The afterword on Bryony and Roses made me want to reread the two Beauty and the Beast adaptations by Robin McKinley, so I’m briefly detouring there.)

    I read through first book and supplement novella of the Captive’s War series by James S. A. Corey, because while I didn’t love every bit of the Expanse novels and short stories, I really enjoyed the series as a whole, and definitely didn’t regret sticking with it. I’d read the next book–I’m intrigued and want to know what happens next!

    I also read the first two books in the Mirror Visitor quartet by Christelle Dabos. Apparently they were written in French and translated by Hildegarde Serle, if any fantasy fans are still looking for hard mode for bingo square 1B, give the first book a chance and see if it sparks your interest. It’s called A Winter’s Promise, and it’s listed as both young adult and romance as well, but I wouldn’t have said the first book was either of those (just not what I expect from either of those categories).

  • Contrariwise@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoBooks@lemmy.world•What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? May 13English
    9·
    1 month ago

    Tearing up the ‘D’ column of my bingo card–I finished The City & the City by China Miéville, Mad Hatters and March Hares ed. by Ellen Datlow, and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne.

    I really liked The City & the City, but it took a good long while before I felt like I was getting a handle on how the society worked, and I’m still not convinced I fully grasped it properly by the end. But it was twisty and turny and enjoyable to read. Also, the first (maybe only) book I’ve read this year that required the Merriam-Webster website on my phone nearby (I learned “encomia”, “rood”, and “machicolation”. Also “grosstopically”, but that was just made up for the book, apparently.)

    Mad Hatters and March Hares was easier for me when I read a few stories and then switched to longer works in between to break it up. Some of the stories were pretty creepy, but I enjoyed the theme of the anthology.

    Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea would work for either the Cozy Read square or the LGBTQIA+ square, and was very light and quick for me to get through. I had fun with the characters, and would read more by this author as a palate cleanser.

    I’ll be starting Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand this evening, and I picked up 1066 and All That from the library on a recommendation from the bingo recs page, just because it sounded neat, so that should be coming up this week.

  • Contrariwise@lemmy.blahaj.zonetoBooks@lemmy.world•What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? May 6English
    5·
    1 month ago

    I’m taking a break from reading Mad Hatters and March Hares to read Persuasion, since I just watched the movie 2 days ago.

    I really like the idea of short stories, and loved reading them as a kid–but as an adult I struggle with them. Getting into a new story before I’m invested in the characters is the slowest/most effortful part of reading for me, so anthologies feel like continually trying to restart a car when the engine keeps turning off. And when the stories are good, I’m usually annoyed that there isn’t more about those characters or in that world (but standalone novels don’t normally evoke that response and I don’t know why).

    I’m considering picking another book for my “Judge a book by its cover” square, since The Tangled Lands is also an anthology.