September Reading Update
Oct. 1st, 2023 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaLotta rereads this month. Let's go!
Currently Reading:
Lesbian Love Story by Amelia Possanza
Really enjoying it. It's a nonfiction collection of...mini memoirs, about historical lesbians, intercut with scenes from the author's life and journey as a lesbian herself.
"You Just Need to Lose Weight": And 19 Other Myths About Fat People
Calling it now, this will be the last thing I finish in 2023.
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
Just started this today! So far really liking it. The prose is really sharp, and I love it when novels use 2nd person.
Rereads:
Mr. Darcy's Persistent Pursuit by Elaine Owen
3/5. Suffers from a problem that many books in this subgenre have: there's not enough conflict.
Mr. Darcy's Noble Connections by Abigail Reynolds
5/5. This is my favorite Abigail Reynolds novel bar none (and she has a lot of them!) It has a unique premise, makes really good use of the OCs (the B-couple actually are a great thematic foil to D/E), and has enough conflict to sustain the novel.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 3 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
New Reads:
Just As You Are by Camille Kellogg
5/5. Modern lesbian Pride & Prejudice retelling with hot butch Darcy? I'm going to be honest, I had significant issues with the book's final conflict, which I feel unfairly maligns the protagonist, but very hard to not give 5 stars to a hot butch Darcy.
The Girlfriend Arrangement by Anna Stone & Hildred Billings
5/5. Once again laid low by hot butches. I love fake dating...I love stupid romcom misunderstandings...I'm in.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 7 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. I forgot about Jun Wu's virgin testing sword. This is truly the book of all time.
Witch King by Martha Wells
5/5. I haven't read a book like this before, and really enjoyed it. I like the worldbuilding, which is dense and minimally explained. It's a book set in the aftermath, and feels in some ways like the last volume in a series.
A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
5/5. I knew this would be good but I was not ready for how good. Maud and Violet are a really fun couple, and this novel advances the plot nicely. It was fun to find out more about Flora and her compatriots, and to see a different side of magic from Violet. Can't wait to learn what Alan's deal is in book 2! (I have a theory, but it's a little silly so I'm keeping it under wraps for now.)
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill
4/5. A Frankenstein retelling. I read Frankenstein this year, so I was naturally interested in a queer retelling with a female protagonist. I think this novel uses the shift in POV to shift the story in an interesting way. The original Victor Frankenstein is a man who has everything and squanders it; in contrast, Mary is constantly scrabbling for everything she has, which gives her pursuit of the creation of life a very different cast.
Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon
5/5. I was blown away by this. It's a novella about an exorcist and a brujo, trying to exorcise the brujo's ex-husband. (T4T rep, if that's something you're looking for.) The prose is knife sharp, just beautiful, and it walks the line between horror and romance really well. Makes really compelling use of religious imagery. I immediately added the author's entire back catalog to my TBR.
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
3/5. Lot of interesting ideas, doesn't really come together for me. Mister Magic was a childhood staple, but it's vanished and there's no record of it. 30 years later, the cast reunites to solve the mystery of why it ended. When the mystery is unrevealed, the suspense carries the book along pretty well, but the moment it starts answering questions
Currently Reading:
Lesbian Love Story by Amelia Possanza
Really enjoying it. It's a nonfiction collection of...mini memoirs, about historical lesbians, intercut with scenes from the author's life and journey as a lesbian herself.
"You Just Need to Lose Weight": And 19 Other Myths About Fat People
Calling it now, this will be the last thing I finish in 2023.
The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
Just started this today! So far really liking it. The prose is really sharp, and I love it when novels use 2nd person.
Rereads:
Mr. Darcy's Persistent Pursuit by Elaine Owen
3/5. Suffers from a problem that many books in this subgenre have: there's not enough conflict.
Mr. Darcy's Noble Connections by Abigail Reynolds
5/5. This is my favorite Abigail Reynolds novel bar none (and she has a lot of them!) It has a unique premise, makes really good use of the OCs (the B-couple actually are a great thematic foil to D/E), and has enough conflict to sustain the novel.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 3 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 4 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Reread.
New Reads:
Just As You Are by Camille Kellogg
5/5. Modern lesbian Pride & Prejudice retelling with hot butch Darcy? I'm going to be honest, I had significant issues with the book's final conflict, which I feel unfairly maligns the protagonist, but very hard to not give 5 stars to a hot butch Darcy.
The Girlfriend Arrangement by Anna Stone & Hildred Billings
5/5. Once again laid low by hot butches. I love fake dating...I love stupid romcom misunderstandings...I'm in.
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu Vol. 7 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. I forgot about Jun Wu's virgin testing sword. This is truly the book of all time.
Witch King by Martha Wells
5/5. I haven't read a book like this before, and really enjoyed it. I like the worldbuilding, which is dense and minimally explained. It's a book set in the aftermath, and feels in some ways like the last volume in a series.
A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
5/5. I knew this would be good but I was not ready for how good. Maud and Violet are a really fun couple, and this novel advances the plot nicely. It was fun to find out more about Flora and her compatriots, and to see a different side of magic from Violet. Can't wait to learn what Alan's deal is in book 2! (I have a theory, but it's a little silly so I'm keeping it under wraps for now.)
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill
4/5. A Frankenstein retelling. I read Frankenstein this year, so I was naturally interested in a queer retelling with a female protagonist. I think this novel uses the shift in POV to shift the story in an interesting way. The original Victor Frankenstein is a man who has everything and squanders it; in contrast, Mary is constantly scrabbling for everything she has, which gives her pursuit of the creation of life a very different cast.
Heart, Haunt, Havoc by Freydis Moon
5/5. I was blown away by this. It's a novella about an exorcist and a brujo, trying to exorcise the brujo's ex-husband. (T4T rep, if that's something you're looking for.) The prose is knife sharp, just beautiful, and it walks the line between horror and romance really well. Makes really compelling use of religious imagery. I immediately added the author's entire back catalog to my TBR.
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
3/5. Lot of interesting ideas, doesn't really come together for me. Mister Magic was a childhood staple, but it's vanished and there's no record of it. 30 years later, the cast reunites to solve the mystery of why it ended. When the mystery is unrevealed, the suspense carries the book along pretty well, but the moment it starts answering questions
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Date: 2023-10-05 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-10-05 11:23 pm (UTC)