Let’s get back to normal a bit. Here’s my WWW Wednesday post!

What are you currently reading?​

Non-fiction: The Rules of Contagion, by Adam Kucharski. This is a bit on the nose at the moment, clearly. I’m enjoying it in little snippets, though.

Fiction: I’m rereading Mira Grant’s Feed, for… probably obvious reasons. It’s at once anxiety-inducing and anxiety-beating; it reminds me of my first experience with reading it, when I had a lot of trouble with my anxiety and this was hitting all my buttons in both good and bad ways.

Wife Book Club (AKA me and my wife pick a book and read it together, at the same pace, in the same place, at the same time): It Takes Two To Tumble, by Cat Sebastian, which is so far very cute and generally fun.

What have you recently finished reading?

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho. It’s an ARC. I enjoyed it, but felt like I was Missing Something. I haven’t read/seen/otherwise consumed much Wuxia, so I guess that’s part of it.

What will you be reading next?

Possibly The Steerswoman, by Rosemary Kirstein, for Wife Book Club. I’ve read it before, and enjoyed it, but never got onto the rest of the series.

So what are you reading?

I missed the normal check-in, but why not! Here’s a belated WWW Wednesday… on Thursday.

What are you currently reading?

Only fiction right now! I’m sort of begrudgingly reading Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr, because it’s a British Library Crime Classic and I’m a completist. I’ve never really managed to get along with John Dickson Carr’s stories, and I can’t really put my finger on why. Part of it is that I really couldn’t care less about the characters, and also the contrived plots… It’s mostly personal taste, I think. Anyway, I’m not far into Castle Skull and so far it’s alright, but I haven’t really changed my mind on John Dickson Carr in general.

One thing that really drives me wild is his detective characters sitting there and feeling clever without their observations being revealed to the reader. That kind of mystery story always annoys me, because it’s meant to make the reader feel stupid.

What have you recently finished reading?

A Fashionable Indulgence, by K.J. Charles, which was a joy. I ended up giving it 5/5 stars, which I rarely do, because I didn’t want to pick at it. Charles reliably writes stories I tear right through, even when there are some hard topics (and there certainly are those). Harry’s a joy, and Julius’ slow awakening to wanting and loving him is as well.

What will you be reading next?

I’m not sure, but probably I’ll pick up The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter. It’s a reread, because I remember enjoying it and I have the two sequels, and it’s also a book club pick. So that seems like an excellent set of reasons to pick it up soon.

Of course, there’s also the next book in the K.J. Charles series I’m reading at the moment, A Seditious Affair. I’m not sure how attached I’m going to get to these characters, particularly given one of the pair’s politics are just yuck, but… at the same time, it’s K.J. Charles. I’m sure I’m going to love it.

What are you reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts. Today’s check-in is here!

What are you currently reading?

Non-fiction: The Great Pretender, by Susannah Cahalan. Over the course of the book she reveals that one of the most famous psychiatric studies, “On being sane in insane places”, may have been largely faked by the man who wrote the paper, David Rosenhan. He sent “pseudo-patients” (sane people faking some symptoms) to various inpatient units in the US, and wrote about their experiences there and the bizarre diagnoses they received. However, Cahalan tried to track down the study participants and… nothing.

So far she’s only discussed the set-up, so I haven’t read the bit about trying to find the participants and figure out who they were, so I don’t know how to evaluate it. Litsy’s pretty torn about it, with mostly negative reviews, often from mental health professionals who feel the whole study is irrelevant now anyway and thus so is this book. However, I question this; I knew about the Rosenhan study, and I’m not by any means a mental health professional, so it’s still in the public consciousness at least that much. Cahalan also discusses all the ways it has impacted psychiatry and… seems pretty important to me!

Fiction: A Perilous Undertaking, by Deanna Raybourn. I enjoyed the first book — it whipped by so fast it left my objections behind — and this book seems set to do the same.

What have you recently finished reading?

An ARC of Hearts of Oak, by Eddie Robson. I’m not really sold on it, I have to admit; I haven’t sat down and had a good thing about it, but I didn’t really enjoy it. That ending felt very flat, because I should’ve cared about Iona and her fate, and I didn’t.

I think that’s my main problem with the book as a whole; it could (should!) have evoked emotions, but didn’t. For instance, there should be something incredibly creepy about realising you’re one of only four humans in your entire world, and everyone else around you is an automaton — some of whom are secretly plotting something which will change everything. But… nothing. It felt totally lacking in affect, for me at least.

What will you read next?

Well, I just got a stack of new books, so something from the stack, probably! How to Argue with a Racist, by Adam Rutherford, promises to finally engage with the question of how to demolish race science (one of the other two books I’ve read on the subject seems to just say that race science sucks and we should just say it sucks, rather than understand why it sucks; the other was from a different angle and didn’t engage with science about race, but more generally about bias).

Also in the pile is Georges Roux’s book, Ancient Iraq, which should have some of the background I’m seeking about places like Nineveh. And then of course I have two new British Library Crime Classics, which are always good fun.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.

What are you currently reading?

Fiction: Fell Murder, by E.C.R. Lorac. Normally I quite like Lorac’s books, as far as I’ve experienced them from the British Library Crime Classics reissues, and this one is appealing in several ways. My brain just isn’t doing fiction right now.

Non-fiction: When The Dogs Don’t Bark, by Professor Angela Gallop. It’s kind of bitty and disorganised, though roughly chronological through her career. I’m finding it interesting, but wouldn’t say I recommend it, because it’s pretty shallow and in some ways repetitive.

What have you recently finished?

The second Brother Cadfael book, which was a reread. I don’t think I’ve read the third book, so it’s all-new territory from here. I think. I do enjoy the historical setting of it, the fact that it could only be set exactly when it is. I don’t know how accurate the portrayal of anybody real might be, but it worked for my level of knowledge.

What will you be reading next?

I don’t know, but I picked up Susannah Cahalan’s new book this week, so that’s a possibility. The Great Pretender is about a famous study of psychiatric wards by a guy called Rosenhan, which portrayed the wards as a place where perfectly sane people sounded mad. Cahalan was curious about how the study participants felt about it, but found that she couldn’t find them… and eventually concluded they may not have existed. A lot of people on Litsy seem to hate it, which gives me pause; I guess it depends on how she presents the relevance of this study now, for me.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts. This week’s check-in is here!

What are you currently reading?

Non-fiction: Michael Angold’s Byzantium: The Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, which is kind of slow and not really capturing my imagination. Ever since I read Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sailing to Sarantium, I’ve wanted a really good book on Byzantium, but I’ve never really found one that hits the right note for me. I guess I need one that’s heavily about the reign of Justinian I…?

Fiction: E.C.R. Lorac’s Fell Murder. I’m not very far into it, but it has a really strong sense of place already, and a rather likeable arrangement of characters — even the crotchety old guy is actually rather honourable and decent, in his own way.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was K.J. Charles’ Gilded Cage; I wasn’t sold on Templeton as a hero, but she made it work. Which is not surprising — even when it takes me a while to warm up (as with Jackdaws), Charles always delivers a solid story and twists me round her little finger as far as characters go.

What will you be reading next?

Insert shrug emoji here! I don’t really have a queue right this second. I have a list of books I “should” read soon that’s as long as my arm, which makes the list kind of pointless. I just asked the oracle (aka held up one of the bunnies) and maybe it will be The Voodoo Killings (Kristi Charish) or Exhalation (Ted Chiang)…

Or maybe not. Who knows.

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts. This week’s check-in is here!

What are you currently reading?

I’m trying to only have one or two books on the go at the moment, so I’m only actively reading Death at Victoria Dock, the fourth Miss Fisher mystery by Kerry Greenwood. It’s pure comfort-reading for me — they read so fast, and Phryne’s so fun. I’ll probably take a break after this, but we’ll see: I’m trying not to be too prescriptive in my reading, so if I read them all in one fell swoop, well, that’s what I wanted to read and that’s good.

What have you recently finished reading?

I got the new Harwood Spellbook novella by Stephanie Burgis from Netgalley this morning, and proceeded to read it in one fell swoop. It’s cute; I need to write my review properly, and that’ll probably be up soon, so… keep an eye open if you’re interested!

What will you be reading next?

I just picked up Sword of Destiny, by Andrzej Sapkowski, so the chances are high that I’ll jump into that soon. Looks a little longer than the previous book, so maybe I won’t read it all in one fell swoop… but maybe I will, who knows. I didn’t pick up the next book, which I think is the first proper novel in the chronology, as I’m trying to be conservative and only buy books I’d like to read right away. But I can easily pick it up once I feel like reading it!

What are you currently reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts. This week’s check-in is here!

What are you currently reading?

I’m partway through The Luck of the Vails, by E.F. Benson, which is fairly typical for the era, and rather full of over-described scenery. I am interested in what’s going to actually happen, though from about the halfway point it’s fairly obvious where things are going to go. It’s kind of a shame, because I rather enjoyed the generalised sense of menace… but it’s a mystery story, after all, not SF, so of course it’s trundling slowly toward the reveal.

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing I finished was The Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski. I’ve reviewed it already, so I won’t say too much; suffice it to say that I enjoyed it and would quite like to pick up the rest of the series. I read it surprisingly fast, and… I don’t know, something about the covers had led me to expect something more tropey and less subtle.

What will you be reading next?

Possibly I’ll reread Band Sinister, by K.J. Charles, because I do love it so and I just persuaded my wife to read it. Otherwise I might pick up one of the books I’ve had backburnered for a while and figure out if I want to finish it; A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland, probably, or Heartstone, by Elle Katharine White. I didn’t drop either because I wasn’t interested, I just had a lot going on. I might start Heartstone over, though; it really has been ages.

What about you? What’re you reading?

The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts. This week’s check-in is here!

What are you currently reading?

I’ve started on Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch, which is all about how the internet (and to some extent, other instant written communication like text messages) is changing the way we speak. I’m not far into it, but I’ve already looked up at least half a dozen times to tell my wife interesting facts or read out good bits.

What have you recently finished reading?

I finished two books yesterday; one was K.J. Charles’ Jackdaw, which I didn’t love as much as the rest of the series, but did warm up to significantly in the last half. And especially when Lucien and Stephen showed up, admittedly.

I also read Seanan McGuire’s Come Tumbling Down, which I really didn’t linger over. Jack’s OCD is a bit too familiar (the bit where she worries about every mole on the body she’s swapped into being potentially cancerous, aaah), but also so… overblown and pathologised that it both felt very much about people like me, but also very disparaging about people like me. Jack literally starts losing her sanity completely because of OCD, and… it felt very extreme, and I did not enjoy it. This is probably largely a personal thing, of course.

What will you read next?

I have nooo idea. Re-cataloguing my books has moved some further up in the queue. The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn by Tyler Whitesides, for example, caught my attention the day before yesterday. Ultimately, though, I’m finding that reading by whim is working well for me, and I want to stick to it. Maybe I’ll pick up something I see people talking about in the comments here, and that’s awesome.

What are you currently reading?