Wednesday Reads

What I've finished reading

I finished Kaleidoscope, which I loved to death, and which I'll review properly soon, I promise.

Lock-In, by John Scalzi, which I really loved.

Redshirts, also by John Scalzi (whose autograph I got at SupaNova back in early April.)  Really enjoyed this one, although I agree with what he said on the Coode St Podcast recently about adjusting his writing style for audiooboks.  I listened to a good proportion of Redshirts in Audiobook, and the dialogue tags were driving me nuts.

Ms Marvel, vol 1.  Love, love, love it.  Volume 2 is now out, and I have to balance having it NOW vs getting the hard copy version when I'm in Sydney next.

What I'm currently reading

Cranky Ladies of History - I'm trying to read one story a night, but last night M vetoed the Elizabeth Bathory story on the basis of potential triggers, and the one after that was too long and complex to get through.

Cicely's King Richard - I'm not entirely sure I'll get through the whole thing.  The author is so VERY Richardian, and on top of that, anti-Woodville in an unavoidable way, and it's driving me nuts.

The Bees, by Laline Paul.  It was on the Locus longlist for 2014, which speaks to its potential.  It's still reminding me very much.  I'll get back to it soon.

What I'll be reading next

Dick Winters: The Band of Brothers' Major has just arrived for me through the library holds system.

A Trifle Dead by Livia Day, first in the Cafe La Femme series, is also waiting for me, on my Kindle app.

Coming soon - notes on Sandra Heath Wilson's "Cicely" books

Today I bought three books on Kindle - the first three books of a Richard III (and beyond) series by Sarah Heath Wilson.  The library has the second book, but no one in the system has the other two, and they were only about A$3 on Amazon.

I may regret it: the concept is that Cicely, the second daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, falls in love with her uncle (who becomes Richard III) - making a change from the usual argument that it was Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter.  The author is clearly a Richardian, and worse than that, she first got interested in Richard via Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time (sigh).

But I'm a sucker for a Wars of the Roses/Tudor transitional historical fiction.

A glance at the beginning of book 2 doesn't inspire confidence in the writing - it's more than a little overwrought.

But I'll give it a go -- and I'll share my thoughts with you!

(Still suffering from Annunciata-fatigue, which is why I'm not reading Morlands at the moment.)

Empress Dowager Cixi: the concubine who launched modern China, by Jung Chang: some notes

I've been frantically trying to listen to Jung Chang's Empress Dowager Cixi this week, thinking that I couldn't renew my loan of it (I have it on e-Audio loan through Bolinda BorrowBox).  I've just been able to renew it for another three weeks, so I can calm down a little bit and even occasionally listen to other podcasts!

But I'm really enjoying this book so far.

I was in about year 9 at high school when Jung Chang's first book, Wild Swans, was published.  My mother and I were reading the same copy simultaneously - I had it during the day, and when she got home from work, I had to hand it over so that she could read it.  (I believe I perfected my ability to read while walking to and from school during that time.)

I also have a copy of Chang's biography of Mao, but I haven't read that one yet.  It's so big that these days it would come under my personal purchasing rule of 'easier in eBook' (I have applied this rule to, for example, Alexis Wright's Carpentaria and Clare Wright's Forgotten Rebels of Eureka.)  I really do need to read the Mao biography at some point, to compare how Chang writes when her main subject is male, but I really like the way she writes about women.

I'm listening to segment 20 of 57 at the moment; having reached the point just after where Cixi's son, the Emperor Tongzhi (I think, I'm getting this information from Wikipedia) has died.  And this is one thing I find difficult about listening to this book instead of reading it: I have no idea how she's spelling the words (obviously there are issues in terms of romanisation, etc, as well - just think of the multiple ways westerners spell/have spelled Mao's name over the years,) and if there are footnotes or endnotes, I can't look them up.  There are times when I really want to know what Chang's sources are, and the only way I'll manage that is if I eventually get my hands on a hard copy of the book. (Okay, or an electronic copy that has managed referencing well.)

Which, this is me.  I'm enjoying listening to this - and the awesome kickass-ness that is Cixi - so much that if I do see it second hand, I will almost certainly buy it, despite the shelf space it will take up.

Sunday Reads - 5 October 2014

I'm still working my way through Kaleidoscope - it's finally on my Kobo, yay! - and I've also been working on Freedom Climbers, and have now finished everything but the Appendices and have marked the book as finished.

The rest of the week has been dystopias and sci-fi.

 On Thursday I finished reading Frozen, book 1 in the "Heart of Dread" series by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnson.  It worked so well, right up until the end, when it was high action, but conceptually a little disappointing.  I adored the drip-feed of world building, so very slow burn, just little bits and pieces that slowly put the world together.  But in all that world building, the drakon just wasn't there.  Sure the voice was there, but the idea seemed to me to come out of nowhere.  And so the last few chapters just didn't work the way I wanted them to.  I wanted to believe the buildup, and I just couldn't.  It was good, but I had such high expectations that had been built up through the book.

I loved Sean Williams' story in Kaleidoscope - "The Legend Trap" - and I was thrilled to find out that it was a short story from a universe that he's written in a LOT.  So I've started the first of Williams' "Twinmaker" series, Jump.  I seriously love the concept of d-mat and what Williams seems to be doing with it - at least in "The Legend Trap", and I assume it will be just as awesome in Jump.

I've also finally begun to read Gemma Malley's The Killables, although it almost broke me in the first few pages with the religious fundamentalist imagery.  This book may kill me.  I'm just warning you.

Wednesday Reads (on a Thursday night) - 10 July 2014

What I've finished reading:
Blue Holes to Terror, by Trish Kocialski
Helping Little Star, by Blaze Kwaymullina and Sally Morgan

What I'm reading now:
The Captive of Kensington Palace, by Jean Plaidy - I never really meant to read the Victoria books.  I guess I'm reading them now.
Four Queens, by Nancy Goldstone - picked it up again one morning this week when I couldn't sleep.  Really enjoying it now that I'm back into it.
The Shadow of Saganami, by David Weber - I needed something lightweight to read on the bus trip to OzComicCon, that was on my Kobo.
Deadly Challenge, by Trish Kocialski

What I'll read next:
Hild, by Nicola Griffiths
A Lesson for Lina, by Sally Rippin
The One, by Kiera Cass


I have some ideas for this blog into the future and I hope that I'll get working on those plans sooner rather than later.

Wednesday Reads - 2 July 2014

I'm on holidays from work this week, so I'm consciously staying away from my ponderings about library users as citizens.

But I am doing some reading!

This may or may not represent current or future reading.

What I've just finished reading:
Forces of Evil by Trish Kocialski (e/web)
The Maid and the Queen by Nancy Goldstone (review to come soon)

What I'm reading now:
Helping Little Star by Sally Morgan and Blaze Kwaymullina
Blue Holes to Terror by Trish Kocialski (e/web)
Musketeer Space by Tracy Rayner Roberts - a serialised gender-swapped retelling of The Three Musketeers set in space.  I'm contributing to this project through Patreon.

What I'll read next:

Hild.  Definitely Hild.  Also The One.

Wednesday reads - 25 June 2014

Getting back into the groove of this one (I hope):

What I've just finished reading:
Jean Plaidy's The Murder in the Tower (ebook) - disappointing, for a Plaidy.  I guess I was hoping for a lot more about James I and Charles I, and she seems to have focused on Charles II and thereafter with the Stuart books.  I do think I'll enjoy the books about Mary and Anne when I get there.

The Agency, by Y S Lee - Awesome.  My only quibble is how easy it was to forget that it was Victorian and assume it was Regency.  I don't know if that's because I'm so used to reading Regency, or whether the setting just wasn't *quite* explicit enough.  But I really enjoyed it, and have the next two on my TBR pile.  (It's a very big pile.)

What I'm reading now:
I'm doing my usual: in the middle of far too many things all at once.

The Maid and the Queen, by Nancy Goldstone.  The third Goldstone I've started and probably the first I'll finish.  Which isn't to say I don't like the other two, I've just been more easily distracted by them.  This one is about Joan of Arc (the Maid) and Yolande of Aragon (the Queen - of Sicily) and Yolande's influence on the reception of Joan.  Seriously fascinating, and will make for a good review post given that I'll have to mention Tessa Duder's Song for Alex and Shaw's Joan as well.

The Body in the Tower, by Y S Lee.  Second in the Mary Quinn/Agency series.

Also on my Goodread's "Currently Reading" list: The Lord's Day (Michael Dobbs), Passage to Pontefract (e) (Jean Plaidy), Escape from Cockatoo Island (Yvonne Poshoglian) and Four Queens (Nancy Goldstone).

What I'll read next:
Hild, by Nicola Griffiths
The One, by Kiera Cass
Our Man in Tehran (e), by Robert Wright
Glamour in Glass, by Mary Robinette Kowal

among others...

... by the way - it's still Wednesday somewhere in the US.