What are you reading?

[Impenitent]

I adore A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking!

It is such a hoot! Clearly for Young Adults audience, but so enjoyable and witty. I believe Elengil took me up on it and also enjoyed it. I'll have to try Swordheart.

I'm currently reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. It's the first of her Monk and Robot series, and looking to be as good as her Wayfarers quartet.

[Frelga]

Impish, I think you will enjoy it.

I read Paladin's Grace, set in the same world as Swordheart but not really a sequel plot wise. I do have some quibbles - the dynamic between the romantic leads is quite similar to Swordheart, and the mystery plot is resolved rather abruptly. Still, quite enjoyable.

Sadly there is a long wait on the next book in the Paladin series. But maybe it will be good to get a break from the pattern.

Listening to Nettle and Bone, also by T. Kingfisher. It's billed as fantasy horror, but so far I am not bothrered. It's the grotesque variety, like a woman with a snake for a tongue. The premise is novel, at any rate, and the supporting cast is interesting.

[RoseMorninStar]

I just finished The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman. The book (historical fiction) is set in 1918 Philadelphia near the end of WWI at the outbreak the Influenza pandemic, which hit that city hard. Fears, bigotry, and prejudice toward immigrants plays a large roll in the tale. The subject matter is difficult at times and paralleled some of what we have experienced with COVID - the difficult choices people face in horrible circumstances. I enjoyed the book and was eager to find out how it was going to play out but the story went in a different direction than I presumed it would.

[Maria]

I'm not enjoying "Paladin's Grace" very much. I just don't like that style of writing, really. What do you call it? When you keep switching back and forth between characters point of view and know every thought in their heads? Double omniscient? I dunno. Whatever it is called, I don't like knowing every whiny or lustful thought in their annoying brains. Plus, the author often repeats the last phrase said when the character viewpoint switches.

And it doesn't help that the reader's voice is so low and rumbly that it buzzes the speakers in my car. I sped him up once, just to raise up the tone of his voice, but enough to do that was too fast for me to keep up with the story for long. I'm almost done with the book, but I doubt I'll start the next in the series unless something changes in the last hour.

[Inanna]

Need something to Read. Fantasy genre, please.

[Maria]

"The Wizard's Butler" by Nathan Lowell. Or "Ravenwood" by the same author. I love his Solar Clipper series, too, but that's sci fi, not fantasy. Nathan Lowell writes calmer novels than most fantasy or sci fi, but they are always compelling stories. I really don't know how he makes them so interesting. I've started rejecting other books for too much violence after getting hooked on his stories.

There's always the Liaden universe, too. By Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I like that series a lot. It's sci fi sprinkled with fantasy. I always start with the first book they wrote, "Agent of Change", although they tend to insert books and short stories wherever they like in the timeline. Do NOT start with the early, early prequels, Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon. They are cool to read after you've read a few of the other novels, but not as a first experience of the Liaden Universe. Too much name dropping and less character development.

I do NOT recommend "Beware of Chicken: A Xianxia Cultivation novel" It was mildly amusing, but I learned late into the book that it was a parody of a particularly weird, small genre of fiction: https://www.tckpublishing.com/xianxia/ I'd have probably enjoyed it a lot more if I'd known what it was making fun of.

[Inanna]

Thank you, Maria! So much. I will check them out.

I just started re-reading the Lord John collection.

[Jude]

Years ago, vison recommended Georgette Heyer, and I finally got around to checking her out. I just finished "April Lady", which I can recommend if you like the Regency period.

The blurb at the back describes some of her mystery novels, which look interesting. Unfortunately, my library doesn't seem to have any of them.

[Impenitent]

(I'm standing in front of two large screens and my keyboard; started typing to post and nothing appeared in the quick reply box; thought the keyboard was having a problem; realised that *I* was having the problem because the keyboard is blutoothed to my laptop while HOF is open on my phone. )

Jude, Georgette Heyer's books are marvellous! I prefer her Regency novels, which created a whole genre on their own.
I've read all of them and can't really pick favourites, but if pushed I'd suggest Bath Tangle, and Cotillion as good follow-ups to hook you onto Heyer.

[Inanna]

Ooooh. New author! Yayyy.

[RoseMorninStar]

I'll have to put her on my reading list.

[Impenitent]

Warning: Georgette Heyer's Regency romances are precisely that...romances. Not your modern romances in which sex scenes are predictably common, but chaste romances written with the most marvellous frothy sense of humour, vivid characters and sassy heroines.

I love them, but don't expect deep literature.

[Inanna]

Sounds like just what I might need nowadays. Don’t know what am battling - pre-menopause or just low dips when I have my period’s time or what.

[RoseMorninStar]

I went through that in my early/mid 30's. :/

Romances aren't generally my thing but I've read a few that weren't too bad/had some story substance. I'm game to give it a try!

[RoseMorninStar]

Cloud Cuckoo land* by Anthony Doerr. This is a book lovers book and it blew me away. There are 5 protagonists in this story, six if one counts the story-within-a-story, each from a different period in time but all wrapped in the same tale. Although a little confusing at first due to the very different 'voices', times, and points of view from which the story is told, I found it masterfully written.

From a review:

The book is a puzzle. The greatest joy in it comes from watching the pieces snap into place. It is an epic of the quietest kind, whispering across 600 years in a voice no louder than a librarian's. It is a book about books, a story about stories. It is tragedy and comedy and myth and fable and a warning and a comfort all at the same time. It says, Life is hard. Everyone believes the world is ending all the time. But so far, all of them have been wrong.

It says that if stories can survive, maybe we can, too.

*edited to add authors name because there are not one, not two, but (incredibly!) THREE books by this title.

[Inanna]

Sounds fascinating, Rose.

I just finished the Scholomance trilogy; the third & final book came out some time this year. A good read. Interesting turns & twists.

[Maria]

I'm hating my current book, but am just barely hooked enough to want to finish it. "Von Neuman's War" by John Ringo and someone I never heard of before.
If it was a paper book or even kindle I could just skim through and see how it all turns out. As it is, I'm stuck listening to every dreary word of this alien invasion story.

John Ringo's books are usually better than this. *pout* I'm guessing he didn't have much to do with this one.

Anyway... I'm a bit over halfway through and humanity is doomed, probably. Maybe that's how it will end? Everyone on the planet dead?

I just finished the Clockwork Boys books by Kingfisher. I quite enjoyed them.
Maybe I should start making sure all the fantasy and scifi I read has some romance in them.

[Jude]

I'm reading Brave New World, but - I really don't like it. I might return it to the library unfinished.

Anyone else read it and like it?

[RoseMorninStar]

I began reading it years ago.. and never finished. Just like 1984.

[Frelga]

I think it's not the kind of book that you like in the sense of enjoying it. It's more of a book where you go "Oh crap, it's happening to us." Same with 1984.

I finished the Paladin trilogy by T. Kingfisher. Paladin's Strength was my favorite, and was the strongest plot wise, IMO, especially the mystery part.

I'm happy to see that Clockwork Boys is now available at my library. There's a wait, but that's fine.