March 2024 Reading Update
Apr. 8th, 2024 01:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaSpring depression has set in, and I have dropped off accordingly. Don't expect much from me until June -- the next two months are very busy for me.
But let's get to the books!
Currently Reading:
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
Just started this today and am enjoying it so far.
We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2021 edited by L.D. Lewis and Charles Payseur
Slowly making my way through it. My goal this year is to try to get through all my unread anthologies.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
If I finish this before book 3 comes out it will be an actual miracle.
New Reads:
The Moonsteel Crown by Stephen Deas
3/5. I didn't enjoy this at all. It's a fantasy about a ragtag group trying to pull off a heist, but it's a grim and tedious novel with a cast of unbearable characters. Insane to me that this has been described as anyone as found family. I particularly hated Fings. It gets three stars because it's not badly written, it's just Not For Me.
Those Who Wait by Haley Cass
4/5. A sweet romance between a politician in the closet and a literature student who's just realized she's bisexual. I thought the relationship between them was really engaging and enjoyable to read about. Cass really brings them both to life. However, I felt like Sutton's plot was better realized than Charlotte's; it felt pretty abrupt that Charlotte just comes out in an interview at the last minute and then the book is over. It didn't feel like a realistic way of handling it. To me it seemed like the book both wanted to engage with the real homophobia a lesbian politician would face and have love conquer all, and I don't think that's possible.
If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura
5/5. A simple premise -- a dying man gets to extend his life one day by making something in the world disappear -- but it brought me to tears. It wrings every drop of emotion out of the death of this very ordinary man.
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
4/5. Perhaps because I didn't know much about the book beforehand, I thought it was pretty solid. It does interesting things with the structure and the point of view, and I liked the conceit -- man trapped in whale, whale possessed by ghost of abusive dad. My sole complaint is that ultimately it falls on the side of "boths-sides"-ing this tulmultuous relationship between father and son, and it's simply not a situation where both sides are equally at fault. This is an unequivocably abusive father and his son is a victim, and I don't think the book handles this in a way that is satisfying.
The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter Vol. 4 by Kazuki Irodori
5/5. Finally we're getting somewhere with this relationship! I really liked where this volume took it: Aresh actually asserts himself, and we start to see Seichi wrestle with his feelings instead of just treating them like they're part of a math equation.
Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu: Vol. 4 by Meng Xi Shi
3/5. I thought this volume is where I finally felt like I was engaging with the politics and plot of the setting, but the romance...ultimately, I cannot understand what Shen Qiao would get out of a relationship with Yan Wushi. I get why Yan Wushi is obsessed with him, but he's not very interesting about it.
Rereads:
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Buddy read with my friend. Still the best book ever.
But let's get to the books!
Currently Reading:
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
Just started this today and am enjoying it so far.
We're Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2021 edited by L.D. Lewis and Charles Payseur
Slowly making my way through it. My goal this year is to try to get through all my unread anthologies.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
If I finish this before book 3 comes out it will be an actual miracle.
New Reads:
The Moonsteel Crown by Stephen Deas
3/5. I didn't enjoy this at all. It's a fantasy about a ragtag group trying to pull off a heist, but it's a grim and tedious novel with a cast of unbearable characters. Insane to me that this has been described as anyone as found family. I particularly hated Fings. It gets three stars because it's not badly written, it's just Not For Me.
Those Who Wait by Haley Cass
4/5. A sweet romance between a politician in the closet and a literature student who's just realized she's bisexual. I thought the relationship between them was really engaging and enjoyable to read about. Cass really brings them both to life. However, I felt like Sutton's plot was better realized than Charlotte's; it felt pretty abrupt that Charlotte just comes out in an interview at the last minute and then the book is over. It didn't feel like a realistic way of handling it. To me it seemed like the book both wanted to engage with the real homophobia a lesbian politician would face and have love conquer all, and I don't think that's possible.
If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura
5/5. A simple premise -- a dying man gets to extend his life one day by making something in the world disappear -- but it brought me to tears. It wrings every drop of emotion out of the death of this very ordinary man.
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
4/5. Perhaps because I didn't know much about the book beforehand, I thought it was pretty solid. It does interesting things with the structure and the point of view, and I liked the conceit -- man trapped in whale, whale possessed by ghost of abusive dad. My sole complaint is that ultimately it falls on the side of "boths-sides"-ing this tulmultuous relationship between father and son, and it's simply not a situation where both sides are equally at fault. This is an unequivocably abusive father and his son is a victim, and I don't think the book handles this in a way that is satisfying.
The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter Vol. 4 by Kazuki Irodori
5/5. Finally we're getting somewhere with this relationship! I really liked where this volume took it: Aresh actually asserts himself, and we start to see Seichi wrestle with his feelings instead of just treating them like they're part of a math equation.
Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu: Vol. 4 by Meng Xi Shi
3/5. I thought this volume is where I finally felt like I was engaging with the politics and plot of the setting, but the romance...ultimately, I cannot understand what Shen Qiao would get out of a relationship with Yan Wushi. I get why Yan Wushi is obsessed with him, but he's not very interesting about it.
Rereads:
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
5/5. Buddy read with my friend. Still the best book ever.
