What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was John Allison and Max Sarin’s The Great British Bump-Off, which is a comic based on shows like the Great British Bake-Off that also features, gasp, murder! Nobody actually dies in the course of the comic, actually, and it’s mostly a light-hearted giggle at the show/competition format with some classic mystery references and tropes. Pretty fun, and the art was nice, but not very substantial.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve started on volume five of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, but life keeps getting in the way enough that I end up not quite in the mood. I reaaaaally want to finish it soon though. It’s grown on me as I went through the story, especially as I got used to the abrupt time transitions; I think I still like SVSSS and TGCF more, but it is fun.

I’m also reading Susan Gilruth’s Death in Ambush, this year’s Christmas-themed offering from the British Library Crime Classics series. It doesn’t actually feel very Christmassy, honestly; there’s some mention of buying Christmas presents, and putting up some decorations, but it’s more like a mystery that happens to be set around Christmas than one which uses Christmas for… any reason, really. The murder isn’t related to Christmas, there’s no requirement for footsteps in the snow, Christmas doesn’t seem to inform the timing… it’s not even really part of the atmosphere. Ah well, I’m not much for seasonally themed books usually anyway.

What will you be reading next?

I’m planning to read Dolki Min’s novella Walking Practice today, for something short and sweet (well, sort of). It’s a bit of a random choice, not something I’ve seen other people talking about, but it came up in my recommendations on Kobo, and it’s in Kobo Plus, so I figured I might as well give it a shot.

What have you recently finished reading?

One Night in Hartswood, by Emma Denny. It was… okay. There was nothing in it that I outright bounced off, other than the fairly genre-typical lack of communication/lying about identity, but I didn’t super click with it either. Sometimes that kind of predictability is comforting, but usually something else (like characters I adore) compensates for it to pull me in, and that didn’t seem to happen here for me.

What are you currently reading?

I’m in the midst of two books: Freya Marske’s Swordcrossed, and T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Faith. I haven’t totally gotten into the former yet, though there’s nothing so far to dislike beyond a worry that Luca’s lies are going to fuck things over in a way that I find both predictable and annoying.

As far as Paladin’s Faith goes, Kingfisher’s usual wit makes this fun, but I’m not sure about the match-up of Shane and Marguerite, or indeed about spending much time with this particular flavour of self-hating guilty paladin. All Kingfisher’s paladins seem to run basically the same software, and that can get frustrating.

What will you read next?

Volume four of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, pretty certainly. I was very tempted to start it already, but I’m trying to focus on finishing up my Book Spin Bingo reads first — especially since I have only two left to finish (the books I’m currently reading), so I’m really close to a blackout that isn’t super last minute, for once!

Anyway, I don’t adore MDZS as much as many seem to, but I’m having fun, and I kinda want to strike while the iron is hot after finishing volume three on Monday. But we’ll see!

What have you recently finished reading?

It’s actually been a few days since I finished anything, so it took me a minute to figure it out! The last thing I finished was Ursula Le Guin’s Finding My Elegy, which is a mix of then-new poems and some older selections. I found it a bit of a weird mix at times.

Before that, I finished Christianna Brand’s Death in High Heels, of which I wasn’t a big fan. I always find her kinda mean, as a writer, and the homophobia on top in this one didn’t help.

What are you currently reading?

A few books at once, it will surprise no one to hear. I’m still partway through volume two of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, which I should just sit down and try to binge a bit, because it’ll probably work better for me that way. I’m also rereading Vivian Shaw’s Grave Importance at last, getting back to that in order to go on and read the new book, and I’ve started the recent British Library Crime Classic collection, As If By Magic (edited by Martin Edwards as usual), which is pretty fun since it’s impossible mysteries.

Other than that, I also picked up Sam Leith’s The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, which I’m enjoying so far. It’s quite a big book, but even so there’s never going to be any way that it could be comprehensive, but I knew that going in.

Aaaand I almost forgot, because I left the book in my reading nook, but I’m also finally reading Kaite Welsh’s The Wages of Sin, which is so far interesting but a bit grim (female medical student in Edinburgh when women have first been admitted to the medical course, also she’s clearly been assaulted and blamed for it, also she’s working with prostitutes and the poor).

What will you be reading next?

Honestly, no clue. I’ll probably start on T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Faith soon, since I’m currently working on reading books I’ve bought this year, but that’s a ways out since I have a bunch of books on the go already. Who knows what my whim will be by the time I’m through the current pile?

What have you recently finished reading?

I skimmed and ditched Shahidha Bari’s Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes because it was pretentious as fuck, gender essentialist to the max, and misgendered a (fictional) trans girl constantly in a discussion about her clothing. So that was kind of a bust.

Before that I read Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism, by Bill Schutt, that occasionally veered into a bit of sensationalism (e.g. says the author tries out cannibalism in the blurb: he eats a piece of someone else’s placenta, to be clear) but had some interesting stuff and sent me on a deep dive into how prion diseases work that contradicted what I learned during my degrees (or rather, suggested that it’s more theoretical and less proven than I thought).

What are you currently reading?

I’ve been keeping my “currently reading” list surprisingly clear for a few weeks, but I started a few at once in the last few days searching for something that would properly grab my interest. I’m in the mood to steamroller through a book, but apparently it has to be the right book.

One of the books I started is Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Public Life, by Tiffany Jenkins. This is the one I’m probably closest to just sitting down and steamrollering through, to be honest, but it’s a little harder to just do that because it’s a several-hour read sort of book. I’m finding it very interesting so far.

I also started C.M. Waggoner’s The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society, which is starting out very self-consciously small-town-mystery, and there’s obviously (very obviously) some kind of supernatural influence forcing events to mimic a cosy mystery with a Miss Marple-ish detective. I’m a little curious how it’s going to turn out, but I’d like it to start getting somewhere soon.

Aaand finally I started volume two of MXTX’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. I’m having a little bit of a rough time keeping track of names and clans, which isn’t helping my enthusiasm, even if I have tried-and-true methods of getting to grips with all that as I read. I’m reminding myself firmly that I couldn’t keep track of Mu Qing, Feng Xin, Nan Feng and Fu Yao at first, and it all fell into place easily enough. Still, might not be in quite the right mood for this, especially with that 184-page opening chapter (even if it is broken into parts).

What will you be reading next?

Feng Ren Zuo Shu’s The Beauty’s Blade is out, and I need to read that post-haste to see if I want to get it for my sister for Christmas. (Uhhh, look away, if you’re reading this, Squirtle!)

Other than that, I’m still eyeing Kaite Welsh’s The Wages of Sin, especially since it’s on my Book Spin Bingo board, and also the idea of getting back to my reread of the Greta Helsing books so I can read the new one (meaning it’d be time for Grave Importance).

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished up with The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, by Brigitte Knightley, just last night. I wasn’t aware when I first added it to my wishlist that it was serial-numbers-filed-off fanfic, and I’m not sure whether or not I’d have picked it up if I knew. Maybe! I don’t have strong feelings about that kind of thing, though it does ick me out if the marketing relies on that nudge-nudge-wink-wink connection. I don’t know if it did for this book, since I just heard about it through other bloggers.

Anyway, there were aspects of this that were fun, but it got very purple prose-y around the romance, and I didn’t find the romance that convincing. The banter didn’t paper over the fact that I just didn’t like either character.

What are you currently reading?

Kathryn Paige Harden’s The Genetic Lottery, which means very well, but a) is making me absolutely glaze over and b) has been critiqued in various ways because the solutions it tries to offer aren’t very convincing. I’ve not read far enough to grapple with b), and I’m not sure if I’m actually going to — I’m not sure if the good intent justifies all these words, especially when a ridiculous number of them were used to come up with a poor analogy to explain genome-wide association studies without actually illuminating much that couldn’t have been better explained by just explaining GWAS.

What will you be reading next?

As ever, no hard and fast rules. There are basically three likely targets: the fourth volume of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, the second volume of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or Kaite Welsh’s The Wages of Sin. I’m probably most likely to start on The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, since that wraps up that series… but the others are tempting too.

What have you recently finished reading?

Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After, which… I think would’ve meant a lot to me 10-15 years ago. Though it would probably have also been more viscerally upsetting 10-15 years ago, since the main character gets private details exposed in school which is reminiscent to me of someone finding private stuff of mine and outing me to the entire school as a lesbian (not a term I use for myself, but close enough to true to kick off several years of intense bullying). It was very teenage, in a way that doesn’t speak to me much now, but I think I’m glad I gave it a shot. I need to mull over how to properly review it.

What are you currently reading?

A lot of books at once, as I try to finish off my Book Spin Bingo card! Let’s see… the last thing I was reading was Emily Tesh’s The Incandescent, which is pretty fun. I have some theories about where things are going, and I kind of hope I’m wrong, just so it can surprise me.

I’m also still partway through volume three of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish, which is still cute and silly. I’ve also started on: Anna Bright’s The Hedge Witch of Foxhall, which I’m still kind of dubious about; Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man, which I’m enjoying but in which the mystery so far is not that mysterious apart from one element; aaand Fonda Lee and Shannon Lee’s Breath of the Dragon, which is enjoyable enough but not totally wowing me right now.

What will you be reading next?

Volume one of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, also for my Book Spin Bingo card! I’d wanted to finish Disabled Tyrant first, but I had a couple of days of not reading much, so it won’t work out if I want to finish off the bingo card.

I also want to read a couple of manga and comics I’ve identified for a comics bingo card, but that might have to wait for November. Sadly, there are only so many reading hours in the day, for some weird reason.

What have you recently finished reading?

I’ve been digging into more of the comics offering I can get via my library’s subscription to Comics Plus, so there’s been a lot of graphic novels in the last couple of days! The last thing I finished, just now, was volume one of Iyanu: Child of Wonder, by Roye Okupe. I loved the backstory and notes probably more than the story itself, sadly.

Other than that, I finished Kim M. Watt’s Baking Bad, which is kinda cute and cosy, and didn’t quite work for me — not so badly that I wouldn’t try reading more by Watt, but the mystery felt a bit obvious and… I don’t know, I need to think it over properly before writing my review, but I really wanted to like it because a friend got it for me and they love it, but I never quite got into it.

What are you currently reading?

My non-fiction reads are Eating to Extinction (Dan Saladino) and The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club (Christopher de Hamel). I’m enjoying both, and they’re both very much by people who love what they’re writing about, which is always pleasing.

I’m also in the midst of volume three of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish (Xue Shan Fei Hu), and loving Prince Jing’s dedication to his unexpected family, and Li Yu’s usual haplessness.

What will you be reading next?

I’m not sure, but I need to get my skates on with my BookSpinBingo card books if I want to get a blackout again this month! I’m not sure which I want to start on next, though; maybe Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Spare Man, as I’ve let it languish unread faaar too long.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Written in History, which was… okay? It’s a collection of famous letters, and I don’t feel like it quite meets its brief of being “letters that changed the world” in all cases. It’s definitely got letters of interest, and useful context for them, though.

I’ve been meaning to read it forever, so now it’s off my list, too!

What are you currently reading?

Most actively, volume two of The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish (Xue Shan Fei Hu). It’s so silly, it’s pretty cute, and I’m having fun with it. I ended up getting volumes two, three and four all together, to celebrate the UK’s Bookshop Day, so I have the whole series ready to dig into.

I’ve also started on KJ Charles’ All of Us Murderers, though the bullying directed at the character who clearly has ADHD is a bit… not what I’m in the mood for right now (though I was warned about it, and almost all the characters doing it are clearly intended to be being unpleasant). I hope to pick it back up properly soon, though.

What will you be reading next?

As ever, it’s up to my whim, but it’s likely I’ll keep on with The Disabled Tyrant’s Beloved Pet Fish. Other than that… I might start on E.C.R. Lorac’s I Could Murder Her, since it’s on my bingo card for October, and a “cosy” (ish) classic mystery sounds like just what the doctor ordered for me right now when I’m feeling a bit bleh. (Right, Dr Mum?)

Otherwise… we’ll see!

What have you recently finished reading?

Yesterday I finished both The Genius Myth (Helen Lewis) and the second volume of Love in the Palm of His Hand (Rinteku). The former was alright, but feels like it went on a bit long after making its point — basically, we crown people as “geniuses” for being good at a narrow subset of things and trust them unduly with other things, and allow them to be assholes as a result.

The latter was very cute; less of the sign language in this one, more about Fujinaga’s acting, and there’s less of him and Keito together… but cute nonetheless, and it’s still fascinating how the sign language etc is portrayed.

What are you currently reading?

The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscript Club (Christopher de Hamel) is the only book I have very actively on the go, and even that I’ve been neglecting! It’s such a chonker, though, I should get back to it before I lose the thread. It’s very pretty, I love that it has in-line colour images rather than just a glossy insert, it makes it a lot easier to remember to take the time to look, and is less disruptive to the narrative. Definitely a good recent trend in non-fiction.

What are you reading next?

Definitely Juneau Black’s Mockingbird Court, out in the US already, out in the UK tomorrow. I love this series, even though the setting actively handwaves the problem of making sense (carnivores and their prey living in the same town side by side, eating in the same restaurants, grabbing pumpkin spice lattes together, etc). I suspect this is going to be the perfect autumn read, too, which is by no means a must for me, but is not unenjoyable.