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?

Far too much, as ever, but most actively I’m back to Abaddon’s Gate and making some progress. I don’t necessarily always feel like reading these books, but once I pick one up it’s sure hard to put it down! I’m also reading a book on the 1918 ‘flu pandemic, The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry. Interesting so far, though I’m going quite slowly with it. Not the most enticing prose, somehow.

I’m also reading The Gracekeepers, which I’m about half of the way through. Still not sure what to make of it, though!

What have you recently finished reading?

Trouble and Her Friends! It’s rather old school cyberpunk in terms of the technology levels, but I enjoyed the interplay between the characters, and the fact that it didn’t rush. The worry about regulating the internet seems rather prescient now…

I also finished The Hidden Life of Trees, which was fascinating, although sometimes I felt things were presented too simply. The fact that trees can sense chemicals in the air does not mean that they taste them in the way we do, for example. Still, a lot I didn’t know.

What will you read next?

I’m feeling kind of like reading some Georgette Heyer — I kind of want to reread The Grand Sophy, but I do have Heyer books I haven’t read before which are on my backlog… I have Regency Buck and Friday’s Child with me in paperback, and a few others on my ereader. We’ll see! I just realised Regency Buck is part of a series, so I’m not sure how readable it is on its own. Darn.

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.

What are you currently reading?

Most actively (the key words, with the way I stack up a bunch of currently-reading books!), it’s Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott, and Angel of Death, by Gareth Williams. The former is queer cyberpunk, and I’m having a lot of fun with it — it’s a little slow to unfold, but I read 25% when I should’ve been sleeping, so I’m gonna say it’s hooked me. Angel of Death is fascinating in other ways, of course, because it’s about the history and science of smallpox. I am learning a lot of things I didn’t know about it!

What have you recently finished reading?

The last thing was a cultural history of rabies, Rabid, by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy. It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, because there was a lot of emphasis on the cultural stuff, like rabies’ relation to vampirism and werewolves. Still, there was some interesting stuff, especially about recent cases who actually recovered from rabies (which is normally considered 100% fatal in humans).

What will you read next?

I started The Gracekeepers, by Kirsty Logan, at the weekend, and I want to pick that back up and finish it. I also want to focus on my Kushiel’s Dart reread. I’m trying not to tempt myself too much beyond that! I’m intrigued by The Gracekeepers; I haven’t read much, so I haven’t got to grips with the setting yet.

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.

What are you currently reading?

A Sting in the Tale, by Dave Goulson. It’s a non-fiction/pop-science book about bees, and is part of a new project of mine to get less scared of insects by becoming curious about them. It worked for me when it comes to pathogens (starting with David Quammen’s Spillover), so I’m hopeful. So far I’m learning a lot of interesting facts — for instance, bumblebees have smelly feet — and I’m not grossed out or anxious. On the other hand, bees are relatively harmless anyway and aren’t a major fear of mine. I’ve got a book on ants lined up, and that might be more problematic. Ideally, I should find something on spiders…

I’m also reading a few other books, but most actively it’s Kushiel’s Dart, which I finally found the time to pick up again. I forgot how long it takes before Joscelin actually appears!

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was a reread of Kerry Greenwood’s Away with the Fairies. It’s a blatant homage to Dorothy L. Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise, in some ways, and it also features Phryne being terribly daring and heroic in rescuing her lover, Lin Chung, from pirates. These books make for great comfort reading, because you can pretty much be sure everything will be okay, and also I’ve read them before so I know how they turn out. And Phryne is awesome.

(I needed comfort reading because my cough got so bad I pulled muscles in my ribcage. I’m doing better now, before I had to bring out the big guns and reread The Goblin Emperor.)

What will you read next?

I’m going to focus on finishing Abaddon’s Gate, for a start. I also have a stack of library books to read while I’m visiting my parents, including some books in the 300s of the Dewey Decimal System for a Habitica challenge. I can’t remember the titles, but they’re about multiculturalism and immigration, so not my usual thing, but rather topical given the world at present and the political preoccupations of our time.

Other than that, I’m not sure. I might pick up Nine Coaches Waiting, since I’m about due for another scheduled dose of rereading Mary Stewart’s work.

What are you reading at the moment?

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?

A couple of things, as usual. For non-fiction, I’m reading The Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim. I know that his views on autism, etc, are very much criticised now, but this is about fairytales and how they help to develop a child’s brain. He’s very much a psychoanalyst, which I tend to take with a grain of salt, but he still has some interesting theories about the appeal of fairytales.

In terms of fiction, I’ve just started Peter S. Beagle’s Summerlong. I have to say, I’m raising my eyebrows a little at the fact that like In Calabria, he has an older man in a romance with a younger woman. It’s less creepy-feeling than in that book, but it still has a bit of that hmmmm to it. Especially in his attraction to Lioness, the even younger character who is really the centre of the story. Not that I expect older people to turn off their attraction to younger people as such, it’s just… since that comment from Jo on In Calabria, I can’t stop noticing.

What have you recently finished reading?

Not very much! The last thing I finished was Helen Pilcher’s Bring Back the King, which is about de-extinction efforts. It’s light-hearted (though not hilarious, as the cover-copy might have you believe) but informative, though I knew most of the info from reading Beth Shapiro’s How to Clone A Mammoth. Very similar info about the same range of species as that book, so unless you’re absolutely mad about T-rex and Elvis (yes, she discusses “de-extincting” Elvis), I think I’d skip it if you’ve already read that.

What will you be reading next?

I’ll probably read the two books just out from Tor.com by Jy Yang, The Red Threads of Fortune and The Black Tides of Heaven. The covers look beautiful, I’m intrigued by the summaries, and I received them to review last week. I also need to get back to reading Andy Weir’s Artemis, of course! And given that I’m still not quite well, and I’m at my parents’ house with my copies of the Phryne Fisher books, I’m tempted to dive into a reread of Away with the Fairies…

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.

What are you currently reading?

Under the Pendulum Sun, by Jeannette Ng. I’m not far into it, but I’m quite intrigued: basically, Christian missionaries go to Fairyland to convert the Fae, and right now the book has a decidedly Gothic feel about it. I’m also reading Caliban’s War; the bits with Holden are getting a bit repetitive, since he basically blunders into trouble in the name of helping people over and over again. I like Avasarala, though.

What have you recently finished reading?

The Tiger’s Daughter, by K. Arsenault Rivera. I found it really appropriative and while the writing was pretty, it was painfully slow. The format, a letter written by one protagonist to the other, just got awkward — it described events at which both were present to the recipient. Whaaat? People wouldn’t actually do that, at least not at such length. It just felt too contrived for me.

What will you read next?

I really haven’t decided. I have a little shortlist I want to finish before the end of the month, so it might be my Kushiel’s Dart reread (finally) or getting onto the second book of my Robin Hobb reread.

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.

What are you currently reading?

I think the only thing I really actively have on the go is Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. So far it’s okay, nothing’s started sailing over my head yet, but then I don’t know how deep into certain concepts he’s going to go. Some things seem to go in one ear and out the other no matter how simply they’re presented.

What have you recently finished reading?

Last night I finished the ARCs of Taste of Marrow, by Sarah Gailey, and The Beautiful Ones, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I enjoyed both; I want more of Houndstooth and Hero’s adventures in Gailey’s books, and I do hope there will be more. I thought The Beautiful Ones a little slow/frustrating at times, because it relied on people constantly misunderstanding each other and/or not reaching out when they should or saying something they should or… whatever. But I did enjoy it.

What will you read next? 

Not sure. The next thing I’m about to lose access to from Adobe Digital Editions is The Last Namsara, by Kristin Ciccarelli, but there’s a bunch of others on pretty much the same timescale. The shortest looks to be Andy Weir’s Artemis, which I did already try to start, so maybe I’ll work on that. I wasn’t that into it, which is sad — we’ll see, though.

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.

What are you currently reading?

Being me, the answer is “too much at once”. I’ve got two non-fiction books on the go — Imagining Head-Smashed-In, by Jack W. Brink, which is about the buffalo jump in Alberta, and The Atheist and the Bonobo, by Frans de Waal. I’m finding both of them interesting, and at least Brink’s book has been praised by First Nations people.

Fiction-wise, I’m reading The Bear and the Nightingale, and trying to finish it. I’m also partway through The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, which is interesting but a little overwhelming.

What have you recently finished reading?

I haven’t actually been finishing much this week, since I’ve been in Canada and going on long car trips, etc. But I did finish The Gods of Olympus, by Barbara Graziosi. It was interesting, but not exactly revelatory — I seemed to know most of the stuff about the development of the way people perceived the Olympians.

Before that, I think the last thing I finished was A Wrinkle in Time. I know it’s a classic, but… it kind of left me cold. Sorry?

What will you read next? 

I don’t quite know. Possibly the next Vlad Taltos book — I reread Jhereg last week. Or I should start Caliban’s War, which I still haven’t read, even though it was last month’s book club read. Oops.

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.

What are you reading now?

Fiction-wise, I’m reading Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee. I’m saving the second half of it for my flight, because it’s a heck of a flight and I’m going to need the entertainment. I’m also partway through Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong, by Angela Saini. So far, no major surprises, but some grim nods of recognition…

What have you recently finished reading?

I think the last thing I finished was The Man Who Fell To Earth, by Walter Tevis. It was worth it, though I wasn’t going to give it four stars until I read the ending… and then it just made perfect sense that that’s how things would work out. A sad sort of sense, though, admittedly.

What are you going to read next?

I have all kinds of things cued up and ready to go on my ereader, so I’m not quite sure. Last time I did this plane trip, I read A Darker Shade of Magic, and I feel like I need a reread, so that might be my pick. We’ll have to see. It’s a long journey, so I’ll probably read a couple of books.

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.

What are you currently reading?

I’ve finally returned to Kameron Hurley’s The Stars Are Legion! I’ve been meaning to finish it for ages, but I needed to refresh my memory, so I’ve started over. I’m also reading Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale; I’m not quite sure what I think of it yet. I’m enjoying the style and the Russian background, but on the other hand I keep putting it down for days at a time. Oops.

What have you recently finished reading?

Yesterday I finished up Assassin’s Apprentice, by Robin Hobb, at last — it’s still really good, though I do find Fitz rather frustrating at times. Still love Verity, too, for his tireless work and his kindness and just — agh, the kind of character I always love. I’ve also just finished reading a history of Vikings, The Hammer and the Cross, by Robert Ferguson. I found it a bit long-winded, though there’s some good stuff.

What will you read next? 

There’s quite a few options on the table, including starting the second Farseer book, Royal Assassin. I need to start reading Pantomime properly — I stopped so I could include it as one of my Reading Quest books. And I still want to start on my reread of Kushiel’s Dart.

In summary, plenty to keep me busy!

What are you reading?